Our entire visit and my complete review can be summed up in a single theme: Shoe leather.
We came here on a recommendation, and I'm convinced that the person who recommended this place is either a doppelgänger from another dimension, or he was at a different restaurant. But rather than just leave a bitchy review that won't really benefit anybody, I wanted to leave constructive suggestions. This restaurant is only two months old so there is a lot of runway ahead for them.
My wife and I ordered the calamari (which was recommended) and the steak and frites (a classic dish, based on the French staple and served everywhere). So it's possible we missed this restaurant's "specialty" but this is also what the server recommended.
The calamari was atrocious. On the verge of inedible. It was like chewing on a Levi's Jean belt from 1977. Tough as a shoe, tasteless, overcooked, and SUPER over salted. I've had better calamari at a carnival. This was abject failure. I will say the caper-dill dipping sauce was good.
Suggestions:
1. Buy better quality calamari. Your supplier is giving you the dregs.
2. Once the calamari is older than a day or two, toss it. Sorry but that's the restaurant business. 5-day old calamari is an affront to cuisine of any kind.
3. Marinate the calamari but don't use too much lemon, which begins to "cook" it and can make it tough.
4. Fresh, fresh, fresh. With calamari it HAS to be fresh or not at all
5. Cook it for less time.
On to the steak and frites:
Flank steak is touchy. Cook it 1 or 2 minutes too long and it turns into jerky. This steak was overdone, super tough, full of silver and tendons, and flavorless. Completely devoid of any flavor. Just awful. And it's $33! The frites were UNDERdone so they had absorbed all the canola oil (super toxic) and they were cooked at too low a temperature which made them absorb even more oil. And don't slather my fries in MORE cheap oil mixed with garlic. Give me the option and warn me about it when I order.
Suggestions:
1. Get a different supplier and buy a higher grade of flank steak
2. Marinate
3. Cook to 135 degrees and not a single digit more.
4. Always let flank steak rest at least 5 minutes
6. Cut it against the grain. Otherwise it's shoe leather.
7. Always trim the silver and the tendons from flank steak. Leaving it on makes it stringy and hard to cut.
8. Get rid of that awful "Hollandaise-chimichurri" sauce. Pick ONE because they dont go together. Also, hollandaise sauce on steak is awful. Ain't nobody got time for dat.
9. This is 2025. Ditch the canola for peanut oil or tallow. Raise your fryer temperature. Cook 30 seconds or so longer. Don't put garlic oil on the fries.
Service:
Ok, this is purely subjective so take it with a grain of salt. Our server actually asked if we were husband and wife!? He asked! You NEVER ask that. Talk about awkward. What if we're work associates, or siblings, or lovers, or cheaters, or whatever? No no no. THEN he asked for our last name and proceeded to use it for EVERY interaction. Every. Single. Time. He'd come to the table and start, "so Mr and Mrs ______, can I get you more water?" It was beyond annoying. I don't need to be buddies with my server. Don't ask me for my name. Whoever taught this and whoever created this policy (fire the operations manager) needs to be dragged across a field of rocks.
The place was nice and is brand new. It's supposed to be a semi-nice, date-night kind of place but they blare RUSH and OZZY and obscure hard-rock blues songs, so I'm not sure what they're after or what the theme is.
Overall I won't come back. It was an expensive meal and was terrible. I HATE being the complainer at the table because the poor server can't do much. So I didn't send it back. I should have but I e worked in restaurants for a long time and I know what can happen
This place has some things to fix. I hope they do. Good luck! read more