Run! Unless you're someone who has no sense of taste, likes overly sweet and extremely unbalanced food, and doesn't mind significantly overpaying for value, RUN AWAY FROM THIS PLACE!!!
Some might suggest it could have been a one off. I'll tell you that's impossible as this was a systemic failure across the board. The food was planned to be like it came, and that's sad as whomever planned this has no sense of taste it seems.
Let's start with the alcohol first. This is a beer and wine only place, though they try to say sake as well (just another type of wine). Then why do they have mixed drinks referencing margarita and old fashioned? Truth is, they tried to mask wine into a mixed drink name. The reality of this... it fails from the start. The "margarita" I had tasted like a lime spritzer with no alcohol whatsoever. It had a nice dried lime wheel but it was a total waste of money. Taste was poor and far from a margarita in concept or delivery.
Let's move on to the wings, chopped salad, and oysters. 0-3 on these items. First, the wings say scotch bonnet and jerked. The reality is no flavor, no taste, no spice and a weird salt hit before sweet finish. The sauce at the bottom of the bowl tastes like a bad bottled jerk sauce clumped in the bowl with fancy greens cut over the top. Cost to value - severely over valued.
The chopped salad was even worse. They put all the innards of the lettuce in the bowl which bumped up the bitterness (and dropped cost) all while making the salad overly sweet with a weirdly salty chicken added. There was no balance to the flavors and sweet came through along with bitter ruffage. Menu price $18. Likely cost of items $5. Actual value $2-3. Yes, it was that bad.
The oysters were actually decently good. Sweet finish but taste was on point. The problem is no horseradish it seems in the cocktail sauce and no Tabasco. I know not all like those things but both are regular items that go with oysters so not sure why neither were present if they sell 2 types as options. This item value was close to the cost they charged but really the only thing I could say that about.
They also give a weird olive sourdough bread on the table. The cooked olive is a very odd flavor but even worse is the oil/vinegar mix. Too much balsamic vinegar in what we got and it is a sweet vinegar at that just further compounding the sweet issues all night long.
All in all, the food was so bad, we had to leave and go to a Chili's near our hotel to actually eat. (We didn't order dinner at this place as we wanted to adjust based on how we were after the apps. Turns out, the place was so bad, we left). I have to say Chili's blows this place away on taste, value and quality. I've rarely ever said this about Chili's but on this night, it was miles ahead of Oak & Reed on flavor, value and cook of food.
We were charged $89+ on the bill at this place, with what I'd judge as an effective value of well below $50. Also, the staff seem completely oblivious as the waitress asked us if we were ordering dinner and when I said no, she said she sees we got a lot of food (we had not). She also said she hoped she'd see us again, to which I said she would not. She clearly wasn't listening or didn't care as she just walked away to my comment.
The ambiance would prob score a 4 on its own. The service (Erika was our waitress), a high 2 or low 3 at best. The food... too bad I can't give a negative 5!!! Heck, this place does not deserve even a 1 star with what we had due to the food.
As I started with the review, RUN!!!! read more