Jinia Haldar
Google
This is an American-Italian restaurant with slightly dim, warm lighting. It has a family feel to it, and all the diners on the night we went were families, although it could also be great for date night. I'd say casual to business casual would be the appropriate attire.
To start, we were given some very tasty bread, not too soft in the center or too crunchy on the edges, with olive oil and parmesan cheese. I know it sounds a bit silly to focus on the breadbasket, but in my experience, the standard of bread does very much correlate to the standard of the rest of the food, so for me, this was a very good sign.
For one appetizer, the cherry pepper glazed calamari, we had perfectly cooked calamari with a crunchy exterior and non-rubbery interior, and breading that adheres well to the squid. The calamari on its own is not seasoned (no salt or pepper), but the cherry pepper glaze is more than enough flavor. My dad adored the cherry pepper glaze. It's spicy and sweet and very flavorful. I admittedly have zero spice tolerance, so wasn't able to have much of it, but even then, I could appreciate the taste. It's a huge portion - about the size of an entree.
We also had a beet carpaccio appetizer, which comes with a burrata ball on a bed of greens, drizzled with a sherry reduction. It's actually more greens than beets, which is fine - nothing wrong with greens, especially if you dip them in the cherry pepper glaze from the calamari dish.
One of our mains was a combo filet mignon and crab cake, which came with mashed potatoes and asparagus. The crab cakes were soft inside, falling apart on the fork, with a nice crisp on the exterior. The filet mignon was nice, but not as impressive as the pork of our other entree.
The second entree was a pork chop lou, which came with mashed potatoes and spinach. Absolutely incredible pork - it cut effortlessly, and the seasoning was lovely. It had great texture.
The tiramisu we had for dessert had a bit too strong of an espresso flavor for my liking (it wasn't balanced with the ladyfingers and mascarpone).
As far as service goes, our servers were very kind and accommodating when we asked for e.g. extra cutlery or sharing plates. They seemed a bit busy, though, like there weren't quite enough servers (which was surprising, since the place was mostly empty), and we did need to flag for our water to be filled up.
Overall, though, good experience. The food comes in large portions and is very filling. The bill for us two with 2 appetizers, 2 entrees, and 1 dessert came out to $180 including the gratuity, so definitely pricier than the majority of restaurants in the area. I think keeping the price point in mind, the food is as good as I'd expect it to be.
One thing that was really our own fault was that we were sat in a drafty location that was quite cold compared to the rest of the restaurant, so do keep in mind that temperature varies a lot depending on where you're sat. We did not realize that some parts of the restaurant are warmer and that we could have asked to move to a different table, so don't be afraid to ask for a different table if you find yours is in a drafty place like ours was.
If this were all I had to say, I'd give the restaurant a 3.5-ish. However, I should note that you must make a reservation beforehand, or the kitchen will close. We walked in at 8:00 PM one day (the website says they close at 10:00 PM) and they said their kitchen had closed due to no reservations, so we had to go somewhere else. We came back another day with a reservation.
I feel that mentioning on the website, "Reservations Required," would save the headache of thinking we could walk in when we effectively couldn't. Because of this, I'm going to give a 3.
