Pamela R.
Yelp
Honestly, in my opinion, this place is very overrated and overpriced. Now for the good, the bag, and the ugly.
Ambiance- 4.5 stars. Very elegant but modern. Dimly lit and romantic. DJ music is too loud for environment, especially at 7pm.
Service - 5 stars. Our service was friendly, knowledgeable and on top of everything. I wish I could remember her name.
Food - 2.5. This is really sad. If only the food would measure up to the ambience and service. The east coast oysters, from Virginia the night we dined, were good. The non-traditional cocktail-chile sauce was decent but the mignonette was overpowered by sharp shallots, which I usually love, but this was at a whole new level. Expensive also at $28 for 6.
The spicy rigatoni starter (not entree) was delicious. I really couldn't taste any spice, but the flavor was very good and the pasta, perfectly al dente. It was high priced for what amounted to a handful of pasta for $26 though.
The charred Moroccan beet salad was good. No complaints except for the high
price of $22 for a few tiny cubes/bites (4 I believe) of beets in yogurt sauce.
Now for the worst part. The pork chop came out rare. I don't mean, medium or pink. It was red and the texture had not changed. We showed it to the server and she wholeheartedly agreed and took it back to the kitchen. When she returned, she said that the female chef who had prepared it argued that it was medium and yelled at her. Not my words, the server's. We were told the chef would make us another one that would be well done. I said no thank you as I do not like my pork well done. I decided to move onto another entrée because I felt I would not get the cook I wanted on the pork chop in light of what I had been told. I wish that I had gotten a picture of the pork chop, but the staff descended on our table so quickly when they saw we had a problem and they promptly took it away.
I proceeded to order the scallops. They smelled extremely fishy when coming to the table. Unfortunately, they were undercooked and translucent as could be underneath the lightly seared top and bottom. The texture made it difficult to eat. I like scallop sashimi, but this was not it. At this point, I did not say anything. They too were expensive at $35 for 3. In opposition to other reviews, these scallops were not large. Also, the corn on the plate was supposed to be caramelized, and it was not in any way shape or form. The parsnip purée was very bland and was not traditional texture. It seemed like it had been aerated. It was odd and not pleasing to me. Overall, the taste and flavors of the dish were just meh.
Now for a highlight. The server insisted on bringing out another pork entrée for no charge even though we said we would pass and order new entrées.
She did proceeded to send out another pork chop, and it was cooked fantastically, perfect medium. The flavors were also very good, especially in comparison to the scallop dish. Everything on the plate worked together so well.
Oh, I almost forgot, the complementary bread is fantastic. It is very rich and buttery.
The bottle of wine we had was good. The wine list for cabs is very expensive though. I believe the lowest price bottle started at $80 and went up very sharply from there.
If the food measured up to everything else, the prices would seem more reasonable, albeit, still expensive but this is trying to be true fine dining.
I doubt seriously we will ever go here again. There are too many places that are true fine dining, whose prices are expensive, as expected, but more reasonable and the food SO much better.
