Jim M.
Yelp
UPDATED REVIEW
I dined at Calypso for lunch with my mom and it was both good and bad - sadly - it was mostly bad.
THE GOOD
Cleanliness/Vibe - The restaurant was spotless and the new renovation really is good. I've been there since the renovation and the colors are bright and vibrant. The atmosphere is very laid back and island like. It could easily be a restaurant in Islamorada or somewhere else in the Keys.
Salad - The house salad with the ginger dressing is always fresh and delicious. That dressing is truly great and that has not changed.
Service - The service has always been friendly and welcoming. That has remained fantastic and that begins the minute you step through the front door. The hostess is very friendly and I've never had a rude or surely server here. Always great with the wait staff and front of house.
THE BAD -
Fried Shrimp -My mom ordered a fried shrimp appetizer. She got a dozen fried shrimp that were all good size. In fact, I wished I had only ordered the fried shrimp app until....we realized that her shrimp had NOT been cleaned. I noticed she was picking off the breading and cleaning her shrimp. When I asked her what was going on, she lifted a mud vein out of her shrimp on her fork and she told me they had not been cleaned. I ordered the fried shrimp entree and my shrimp were jumbo shrimp that had been butterflied (cleaned). However, her shrimp app had shrimp that were large enough that they could have and should have been cleaned. I'm sorry but that's just gross and my 87 year old mother struggled through her lunch trying her best to clean these shrimp that, for some reason, had not been deveined. While my shrimp were cleaned and good, the only thing I would say that would keep these shrimp from being nigh perfect (apart from pulling out the mud vein) is the breading. The breading is, in my opinion, too heavy. I'd eaten fried shrimp at Isle of Palm in several locations in May and every place I ordered fried shrimp had excellent light breading and that really makes a difference with regards to how long the shrimp have to be cooked. I would give my fried shrimp an 8 out of 10, but my mom's shrimp got a 0 because who wants to eat feces. I mean....gross!
Potato Salad - This looked so good and it tasted SO BLAND. There was absolutely no flavor. I took one bite and put the bowl aside. The presentation looked great, but the flavor was absolutely nothing beyond that of boiled unsalted potatoes. This is a southern staple that is so easy to get right. I'm not sure what recipe they are using but, and I'm not trying to be snarky in the slightest, Publix potato salad is next level compared to this.
Collard Greens - Speaking of southern staple...if you're going to offer collards, there are some things that are just sacrilege when it comes to greens. I have never ever heard of collards made with sautéed onions. The main ingredient for collards should be ham hocks in the pot and they need to be cooked down with those or some form of pork. Apple cider vinegar adds a nice flavor profile for collards, too. However, these were just weird. Having grown up in Pompano Beach, I've had collards all my life and I have never tasted anything so bizarre. The texture was all wrong - these seemed to have been sautéed like kale because they were crunchy. The cut was all wrong, too. I've never seen collards presented with a chiffonade cut. The onions had been sautéed separately in something else and they just didn't taste good. All I can say is that for anyone familiar with collard greens and soul food, this will taste weird, at best.
Sadly, I cannot recommend Calypso any longer. However, the few things that I have mentioned from my lunch today are not difficult items to address. A few tweaks to the recipes and I believe they will be back on top.