We've been several times before, but it's been a while since our last visit as Mey had a bad experience last time. It seems the waitstaff rushed her out of the restaurant last time because her group came in an hour before closing. She felt as though she received different treatment with her spanish-speaking family than she typically does when she goes with a tall, lanky gringo.
So why on earth would we go back?
Well, after a few months of consideration she decided that although the waiter was clearly in the wrong to rush them, he isn't indicative of the restaurant in it's entirety. Maybe the waiter had a family emergency...or maybe his ex-girlfriend texted him to come over for a booty call. Certainly not excusable, but we've all been there. Well, not me personally, but I've heard of it.
And the food is really good.
That's not to say that there aren't issues with the service. My wife and I walked in and stood at the hostess stand for a conspicuous minute or two with no help. An older country club type came in with his wife and was attended to before us, although the hostess had only a 50/50 shot of telling who arrived first.
We were seated near the kitchen and it's clear that we're not the target audience. That's understandable, as my wife and I aren't dropping crazy money on vintage bordeaux the way that I imagine some of the geriatrics are. It's not too bad because the kitchen is open and beautifully done in copper sheet metal. And it allows me to be less conspicuous using my iPhone camera to capture each course.
At left you can see a view from our table. A friend of mine works for a high-end architectural lighting company that made the interior light fixtures for The Grill. The end result is a nice, contemporary-rustic look. Table spacing allows plenty of room to not be crowded. The noise level is well suited to normal conversation, so there's no need to shout at your spouse. Unless you want to. But that's your business and I'll stay out of it, thank you.We stayed away from the wine menu to keep the tab low, and I ordered from the Monday night 3 course special menu. Mey ordered the same thing she always does (spicy penne shrimp), which is consistently tasty. I like to mix it up a bit, and live by the seat of my pants. Well, sort of.
I started with ceviche which is a very tricky dish to please me. Mey introduced me to ceviche and in my opinion it should be made with raw seafood which is chemically "cooked" by the lime juice. This method of preparation is rare in restaurants, as they always tend to cook the fish before mixing it, likely for health reasons. This is sacrilege and removes a great deal of the flavor. Why not eat lime-flavored tofu instead? Because it's crap, that's why. Granted, there are those who shy away from strong flavors or seafood, and those philistines can gladly dine on sterile, prosaic, week-old crustaceans. It leaves more of the good stuff for the rest of us.
So needless to say, I wasn't expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised to find they got it half right. The scallops and fish seemed like they were raw (or close), but the shrimp was quite cooked before being mixed in with the lime. Not bad; the two important flavors were there, just not strong enough. Sandbar is still the place to go for ceviche, but this was well above some of the tomato-based concoctions I've had elsewhere. The crackers are for pansies.
On to the main course. The presentation was nice - they use great contemporary dishes that aren't overstated - and the food was interesting. I'm still not sure if I really loved it, but it was interesting and got my palate going. I ordered the smoked pork tenderloin with braised red cabbage and
potatoes. The pork did have a nice smoky flavor, but it was too dry and hard which accentuated the smoke more than the pork. The braising sauce was great and really helped to mask the dryness of the meat. The red cabbage and potatoes paired nicely, and made for a tasty combo. I sampled a bit of Mey's spicy pasta, and was pleased that they made this solid dish very well every time we've been. They're not kidding about the spicy part, so be prepared to push the limits of the pleasant passive-aggressive water yielding busperson.Dessert was standard and had a nice chocolaty presentation on an oversized plate. I didn't get a good picture because I scarfed down the sweets as soon as the waiter brought the cake to the table. I would say dessert is on par with your typical olive garden. It didn't rock my world, but it is chocolate cake, so who can really complain.
Like any self-important food critic, I have devised a restaurant rating method. My Peruvian wife decided that it should be the Dewey-Cuy scale and rated from 0-5 Cuy.
Ambiance: 4 Cuy
Service: 2 Cuy
Food: 4 Cuy
Overall:
No comments:
Post a Comment