Johny J.
Yelp
This place doesn't live up to the hype. The food doesn't actually taste that good and certainly doesn't warrant the price.
To start, I'm a little curious if some of these reviews are legit, but this restaurant admittedly has a lot of hype by word of mouth, so maybe so... Sorry, but the way the reviews describe the decor and atmosphere, they're just way over the top. It's not that special or unique.
It's not fancy, despite the white table cloth price tag. It's very dimly lit, which is fine, but I noticed 2 other patrons using the flash light on their cellphone to read the menu. The set up by the wood fire grill is pretty cool, but you've seen similar if you've been anywhere that does oysters. Still, the grill setup is pretty ingenious and looks like something I'd love to cook on.
Anyways, this place is very trendy at the moment. It's where all the hip, young money, and people on dates go. It's loud, not that romantic, but hip.
The cocktails are good. The ones I've tried were all well-balanced with sweetness and bitters, but be careful, they're very strong.
As far as the food goes, maybe I just happened to order all the worst stuff on the menu, but it just wasn't that good. Most, I would say are not that special, but this was the first time in years that I've eaten something at a restaurant that actually tasted bad. My wife asked me not to send the food back or tell the staff how I really felt about it because she didn't want to ruin the mood.
The focaccia bread was nice and soft, but it's just bread. The butter that comes with it is very tasty and certainly the reason everyone likes the dish.
The pork ribs were surprisingly good. To be honest, I'm not a big fan of ribs, but I really enjoyed these. They were tender and smokey. The soy sauce on it was a very nice change from the ridiculously sweet bbq sauce you get from most places and the peanuts were a nice addition as well.
The Caesar salad was pathetic. Arugula and breadcrumbs. That's it. My wife enjoyed it, I was shocked that they charge money for that.
The mushrooms were ok. They were meaty and smokey, which was nice, but after a couple of bites, it became too much. I tried eating the mushrooms in the same bites with my entree at times (lasagna) and it didn't really work together. I ate less than half and had enough.
The potatoes were really good and probably the highlight of the night for the food. The toasted, crunchy garlic on them set them over the top.
And now... the "lasagna". There's meat in there? Where? No beef cheek to be found. Cheese? Err... not much... a drizzle of white cheese sauce that you'll be scrounging to try and get in every bite. The pasta was fine, but it was doused in the grossest sauce I've ever had in a restaurant. Did anyone taste this? My wife said it was ok, but she was already 2 drinks in and kept insisting on being nice and not complaining. The red sauce was heavily over salted, watery tomato sauce that may have come straight from a can and they just dumped a bunch of salt in it. No herbs or spices or any other flavor to be found. Basil? lol No. Garlic? lol No. Salt and bland, watery tomato. I'm shocked that anyone would serve that. There's no way they tasted it. This clearly can't be the chef's intended product. If it is, their pallet is wrecked.
For dessert, we had the "mousse". It's not a mousse. It was very tasty. A bitter, dark chocolate cake complemented with a sweet, hazelnut cream. I heard a patron next to me also taken by surprise saying, "Uh... that's a THICK mousse!"
Looking at other reviews, maybe I should have just went with the steak or fish.
The staff and service was great. The $200 price tag was a bit of a shock. I'd gladly pay that at fine dining restaurants, but this isn't fine dining - not even close.
I'm shocked that with their wood fire setup up, they don't do any pizzas or flatbreads. The menu is underwhelming. I literally felt like I settled for every item that I picked. There's nothing on the menu that I read and was excited to try. The "spaghetti" with blue crab sounded cool, but when I seen it come out for other patrons, it looked pretty lame and I changed my mind.
Certainly not worth the hype and I'm actually pretty surprised that it's the current trendy restaurant in the city. Maybe I'm just getting old.