Jane D.
Yelp
Oh no... what happened?! Someone else must've been in the kitchen on this visit and the food wasn't nearly as well prepared as on our last visit.
I'll start with the good. The pork chops were again fabulous, nicely brined, flavorful and juicy, served with beautifully fried, battered pickled jalapeno and I think peppadew peppers. The accompanying broccoli rabe, which was perfectly prepared last time around, was undersalted, underseasoned, and a touch undercooked this time -- just ok. Buttery mashed potatoes, scratch made to judge by the texture, remained delicious.
The skirt steak was still impressively sized on this visit, though it came more well done (medium-well done / well done) than the medium rare we requested, and was undersalted and underseasoned this time around. The accompanying broccoli was similarly flawed, undersalted, underseasoned, and cooked a touch too hard for our family's tastes.
The salmon was, in short, a bummer. We probably should've known better than to have ordered it given prior bad experiences with fish and seafood at this restaurant, but our last excellent meal here made us throw caution to the wind. The generously portioned fillet was nicely prepped with crisp, pan-fried edges, and there was a pretty pat of compound butter served atop. But unfortunately, the fish was far past peak freshness and quite fishy, just not enjoyable to eat. The bed of quinoa pilaf it came on was great in concept, with sauteed peppers, onions, and spinach in the mix -- but it was, like the other vegetables we had tonight, undersalted and underseasoned. The pilaf was also unpleasantly oily.
A children's grilled cheese was impressively pan fried to a beautiful golden brown, but both the sandwich and the accompanying fries had a hint of rancid oil.
Our server this time around was very pushy with drinks and cocktails, and seemed shocked when we said we typically selected our food before matching a wine to it.
We'll probably give this restaurant another try or two given the convenient location. But I'll no longer be able to reference the perfectly prepared vegetables we had on our last visit as the metric for area restaurants. You're probably safe if you stick with the meat and potatoes.