A fairly upscale place, attached to a hotel. There’s great views of the water and it’d be fab to be sat down when it was time for the sunset. There’s also an interesting menu with Spanish influences, although it’s fair to say that the execution didn’t always meet the menu’s ambition.
A Romaine salad came with crisped sourdough and marinated white anchovy fillets. But, when you spot there are only two anchovy fillets, you can conclude that there’s something of the piss being taken. Had some basic generosity been shown, this would have been a good introduction to the meal. In the event, it just felt miserly.
The other starter saw a bowl of prawns in garlic, parsley and oil. All pleasant enough, although they serve the prawns with the shell still on the tail. It’s a bugger to deal with when you’ve only got a spoon.
Key West pink shrimp (king prawns) featured in a main course pasta dish, along with broccoli rabe. I liked this – tasty and well balanced. And I had a knife, so could cut off the tail shell.!
The main course scallops were not accurately cooked. There were four on the plate – a couple were a tad over, and one a tad under. That’s not a high success rate and nowhere near as good as my local bistro (and 30% dearer). To make matters worse, it was served with risotto. The problem wasn’t the presence of risotto as such, but that it was overcooked and claggy (although with agood flavour).
We didn’t bother with dessert. Coffee was good.
When I visit America – at least in recent years – I’ve found it fairly common for the bill to have printed out “recommended” tip amounts at the bottom. Saves you doing the maths yourself, I suppose. But this was the first time I’ve seen a suggested 25%. 25%? WTF? And, no, we tipped 18%
It really was a curate’s egg of a meal.
