Amy Atomika
Google
I feel mixed about leaving a negative review here; this place is local and their prices are really reasonable, plus the interior is very polished and attractive, but:
The menu is super schizophrenic, with burgers, deli sandwiches, falafel, tacos, and Indian food
Only one dessert, and it was panna cotta, which already is a weird choice.
I ordered three items:
- a house cocktail that was a pea-flower gin lemonade with lavender. It came unshaken and unstirred, each part dumped unceremoniously into a Collins glass with only half-enough ice. The lemonade sat on the bottom while the purple gin and lavender floated above it; “You’re gonna need to stir that,” said the bartender as he handed it to me. He served it without a serviette or bar mat. He never refilled my water glass. I was the only customer at the bar for most of my meal; the dining hall was empty, and a few people were out on the patio.
- For dinner I ordered the “pulled pork” tacos; the quotations are mine, as there is a definitional culinary difference between “pulled pork” and other types of slow-cooked pork preparations. What I got was more like carnitas, and there was no sauce of any kind. It was served upon a steamed corn tortilla, it’s only adornment some diced tomatoes, salt and pepper, and a thin slice of avocado sat on top. No mole, no adobo, no chimichurri, no barbecue sauce, no aioli, no crema, no cheese. Just dry pork on a wet tortilla. I only ate half my order.
- I decided to risk their one dessert, which was also their only Italian item, though here assumedly more British, as the menu says it was infused with earl grey. I tasted no such infusion, and though the panna cotta itself was not wholly unpleasant, it was served to me in a disposable plastic cup. Like hospital food. Like the jello in your kid’s lunchbox.
I’ve rarely seen less harmony between what a restaurant’s potential felt like upon entering and what I ended up being served. It’s a gorgeous and breezy little place with very good prices, but the effort behind the product is absolutely not there. It’s not that the food is bad, it’s that the menu’s execution is absolutely rudderless. They need to pick a lane, figure out what kind of place they want to be, and hire a head of house that knows enough about cuisine and service to execute.