Zlatko J.
Yelp
Oh well, here it goes... "what a horrible dining experience"... I do not maliciously or purposely leave reviews to sound awful, never have and never will. This was just one of those times where "it is, what it was" and needs to be said.
I will start with the only positive part of this evenings experience, which was being with my wife, outside on the apron, in a booth, just before sunset and enjoying our company at this beautiful evening, at this restaurant. This restaurant is positioned well and the patio dining area is fantastic.. your able to enjoy the outdoors and the Torrance village area, all the while the sun goes down over a couple drinks and what we hoped would be a good dinner...
(Wishful thinking, we almost had a perfect eve j til the dinner part)
The food and dining experience, here it goes, and please know that I don't take pleasure in my describing my disappointment here, but it needs to be said!
We ordered appetizers... A Cesar Salad (Horrible, and you ask why, and/or how can you mess up a Cesar Salad you ask). It came out dry as can be, I "absolutely" had to order and additional serving of the dressing... which then was delivered in a small container, that could not even be poured onto the salad. It was so thick, maybe thicker than a Mayonnaise spread, "It would not even poor out, so very thick I really thought they were giving me something to spread on toast", haha... (we didn't even have any toast or bread, that's the funny thing)... I should have complained right there and then, but instead, We made the best of it by dipping our lettuce into the small container to get some remanence of dressing on the leaves of our lettuce)... along with the salad, we also ordered the grilled Brussel Sprouts, which were good, all things considered during that time. Then we ordered our entree's - My wife ordered the Salmon BLT, which she says was pretty good, but... seeing what I ordered and my disappointment in my entree, I think it took away from her enjoyment of her dish. I also think we both had our heads still shaking from the disappointing salad appetizer. Let's get back to my entree, which was the Herbed Salmon. This dish was nothing more than a piece of salmon, which layer onto a bed of steamed rice and some asparagus pieces .... This was totally misleading from what I expected from what is printed on the menu. What it came out as was terrible and for the whopping $32 dollar price tag, it was disappointing and almost a joke in itself. I am not one that cares about the $32 because I expected it to actually be the Herbed Salmon plate as described... let's get to it, It came out Very Blandly grilled...the Seasonal Veggies as described (Nope, I didn't get that on the plate, I got a few cut up pieces of Asparagus and that is it) and the Chimichurri... Ha, I'm not sure if what their take on Chimichurri is, but I didn't see any Chimichurri anywhere on my plate...however, I did see some decorative, what looked like Red pickled shaved carrot strips, "what a joke"... the menu was totally misleading. "No" interpretation of the items ordered to make me believe I would be served something entirely different than what I read as printed on that menu... the Salmon looked like a piece of frozen Salmon I buy at Costco in the frozen bag, the rice was just steamed with a hint of truffle oil, but as far as seasonal Veggies, haha... come on, just say it's asparagus (I don't even like or cannot even eat asparagus)... and if it's Chimichurri (please google Chimichurri.. I can assure you there was No chimichurri served anywhere on my plate)... I was hopeful I would just be served as such described on the menu.
If it's a different take, on any items, then please have the servers advise customers as such, whatever your kitchen/chef's take is on original items, the difference should be presented and the expectations should be set before ordered... that would have helped and this horrible dining experience could have been avoided... I would have just ordered the Fish & Chips as I know it would have and could only be fish and chips, I would hope!
At the end of the day, I would only give this place a 1 star and only because of location, the booth on the patio and the Brussel sprouts being as expected... otherwise, "I Do Not recommend or will not refer this restaurant to friends and/or family or to our honest Yelp friend community...