Brian R.
Yelp
It's a seafood restaurant, sort of. The menu of fish dishes, without committing to a fish for a table? About four. All delicious, mind you. They have chicken beef, lamb and vegan dishes that are outstanding, as well as a massive raw bar.
The menu of Seacuterie, cured fish small plates, allows for some interesting adventures. If you're rich enough to have a DUNS number then their raw platters won't cause your piggy bank to squeal too much.
The Chilean Seabass was outstanding. Pricey, at $55, but well presented and perfectly cooked.
The hangar steak had a Moroccan-style chimichurri tgat was truly signature on a steak frites plate that was a ten.
The oysters were amazing. Star of the meal. The light colored mignonette was exceptional. The other two, an overly sharp red wine, and, ugh, the ski mask of oyster toppings, cocktail sauce, were both sub par.
The bar is well stocked. The bartender was disappointing. Some have mad skills. His are sad skills.
I asked if he could make me a Sazarac with an orange peel instead of lemon. A bar of this caliber should pull it off. The watery thing that arrived was a drowning victim of shaky competence, no twist. When I asked the waiter for an orange peel I got two hastily plated orange slices. I felt like tipping the bartender with a game of Clue, so he might finally have one.
Our waiter was super attentive, and pleasant. Perhaps it's a bit of deafness from working in a dining room that rivals a Pratt & Whitney wind tunnel, but he had to keep coming back to repeat parts of our order. The raw bar lost our ticket. When he arrived with double our order, I realized that it's a tough room to work.
Kudos to the manager for not asking how our meal was with our faces full of food. You know that you aren't going to hear too many complaints with food like this.
Elegant digs with killer ambiance bode well for a great meal. Walk into the main dining room with a classic bar, and the dining room filled with gabby snow vultures, during season, does work against the vibe a bit.
Not as bad as at other island eateries, where you could fire a howitzer and not hear it over Joan's lengthy lament that her experience got the house in Martha's Vineyard and how she's been forced to slum her summers in Fire Island.
Still, this place is ridiculously pricey, even for tony, crony Palm Beach. I get better oysters at Fern Street Wine Bar for half the price. Likewise I can get a phenomenal Sea Bass for a quarter to half the price at many places across the bridge.
When your board of fare soars past the island's killer B's, Boloud and Buccan, it was fun, but this is a one and done.
Out.
