Brian W.
Yelp
As incredible as the food was, there was clearly an issue with the service team that kept me from giving a five-star for a very costly meal plus the fact, I understand the value of having a suggested dress code or best practice for when dining out while my wife and I were dressed properly we were sitting amongst folks who could have just come from a day at the beach or walking the shops along the harbor, and it was not what we were looking for.
I don't know if there was a shortage of staff, but Bridget the server as much as she put on her stage face, and the busing staff as well, we felt like the service was way off and I'll give examples but if you want to know about the food, it is exceptional.
We arrived early and I was a little surprised to be seated in a corner all the way in the back yet considering we were dressed to the nines, we moved to a table a little closer into the restaurant so we felt like we wouldn't be ignored by staff and also to enjoy the atmosphere instead of having a line of view to the kitchen.
They have an extensive wine menu with lots of good options. The food menu was well thought out with many options.
Our first not-so-great run-in with our server was when we were discussing wine options and flavor profiles, and a request for a taste was like we were asking for too much. When a glass costs what the bottle costs I like a taste before I ask for a pour.
For our meal, we started with the muscles and clams, which were all open, and had a nice flavor profile, and it went great with the Essence Riesling wine from Germany we had ordered.
Next, we had a whole baby arugula salad that was split between the two of us, we appreciated the kitchen doing this. The salad was fresh and broke up the flavor from the muscles and clams before going into our main dish which was the veal marsala, and instead of having pasta we were able to substitute for broccolini and a side dish of creamy polenta with shaved Parmesan split again in the kitchen; which was a very nice and much appreciated.
The dish was perfect, tender, and flavorful, and it was certainly plenty for the two of us.
My concern about staffing is how many times a bus person would pass by and ignore the dirty dishes on our table. How many times our empty water glasses sat until they were refilled. It wasn't that they weren't on the floor, but they would walk through very focused on a single task passing through rather than scanning and looking at what they could do to make this an exceptional experience for these people rather than having someone like me write a review about the downside experience.
In summary, certainly a good restaurant to break up having seafood during the week, but management needs to step up their game when it comes to those on the floor representing the brand again considering this is not an inexpensive restaurant.