Ryan H.
Yelp
I'll start by saying that I truly wanted to love this place and was super optimistic to start.
I've seen a lot of great reviews on social media of Sea Mario and being so close to home I was excited to give it a try.
Made reservations for 5:45pm and arrived just prior, and was seated promptly. We were the only two in the place when we arrived and by the time we left two other tables had joined.
Inside was really nice, black and white clean decor and owner Mario and a nice woman greeted us.
Sat and quickly served water and specials were reviewed. Ordered a bottle of wine, a Montepulciano ($62 and the least expensive on the list), and list was fine but seemingly expensive in comparison to comparable establishments with similar pairings.
I ordered a lobster bisque and the fried calamari. Both came out in a reasonable time and both looked and tasted great. Huge calamari rings flashed fried nicely. Bisque was creamy and nice pieces of lobster, a bit tart and not the buttery creamy bisque you would expect, but fine nonetheless.
For dinner, I ordered the lamb shank ossobucco with papardelle pasta that the owner and Chef Mario highly recommended as the best meat entree on the menu. Partner ordered the ribeye steak which I first confirmed was a prime cut prior to ordering, with side of spinach.
Entrees came out and steak looked grey, poor sear and no seasoning whatsoever. Flavor was bland and very very tough; there is not a chance this was a prime cut of beef. Was also extremely undercooked (rare) after ordering medium, but didn't even mention it as the flavor and chew wouldn't have made a difference.
The lamb shank was the toughest piece of meat I had ever had and I was genuinely embarrassed. I had to shear off piece with a knife and it was chewy, tough, grisly and inedible. The pasta was not papardelle for starters, was a minuscule portion and the sauce tasted of canned turkey gravy.
Owner Mario came over to check on us and I advised of the extreme issue with the shank. He said "I just made it today so it needs more time to cook" and took it away to address the issue (know full well there was nothing he could do to make the shank edible in any short amount of time). I sat for 15 minutes as my partner tried to eat his steak, and I waited. Mario came back out with a larger portion of pasta to entertain me while the meat was still being worked on. When the meat finally arrived back, it was the same as when it went back, tough and inedible. I declined it and it was removed from the bill. I went from so excited and impressed to disgusted very quickly. To top it off, the bill was still over $200 with the one meal removed and only one bottle of wine. Needless to say, will definitely not be returning.