Disappointing in so many ways; will not return. First, the food. The fish tacos, 2 flour tortillas,…read morewere small in size, the fish had no flavor, was dry and overcooked, and the batter was excessive and very salty. Rather than cilantro it was garnished with chives; just weird. The lettuce - romaine? - was wrong. The sauce was dull and the cheese, cheddar, was completely wrong for a fish taco. The slaw was tasteless. I didn't realize it was fennel-apple until I reread the menu later. And the slaw was inside the tacos, not separate, which made for a very messy eating experience, compounded by it being served on a wood pizza peel rather than a plate.
The tacos were served with tortilla chips so this meal would have been tortillas with a side of broken tortillas. I wanted something less redundant so I substituted fries. Good, seasoned with pepper. Nothing special, but the best part of this mediocre meal.
There is no bread on the menu, free or otherwise. Ok, they do have breadsticks, for a whopping $8. No thanks. Later I did see a slice of white bread on another diner's plate so I know they have it in house so why not on the menu? Offer bread; is that too much to expect? (And it should be free of course.)
Before the entree I ordered onion soup. It was ok, nothing special, but was the smallest portion I have ever seen. Served in a tiny crock filled to the top and overflowing, the tiny ceramic coaster it was served on (rather than a saucer) was completely inadequate to contain the drips and I made quite a mess on the table.
Now, on to the service. It started off ok, with a friendly welcome from my waitress who told me her name (which I've forgotten) and politely asked me to wait as she noticed some crumbs on the table and proceeded to clean half of it (not the whole table). She didn't say anything about specials so I asked. Why yes, she said, there are several, which she described and said "she thinks" that's all of them. She said something about being away for a while and was "out of the loop", whatever that means. I got the soup and tacos from the main menu instead. The tacos came while I was only half finished with the soup, an annoying timing mistake.
When I commented on the mess I made on the table (due to the unconventional non-plates the food was served on) and apologized, you'd think she would take the hint and wipe it, but no. So I endured a crumb and spill-laden table until I left.
Drinks: my cucumber jalapeño margarita was ruined by excessive sweetness and it was pretty weak. I ordered a sangria with my entree. It didn't arrive so I forgot about it until I had finished everything including dessert and was getting ready to pay. At that time it arrived with a sheepish apology that it was "a bit late,." I apologized too and politely declined to accept it and was not charged.
Ambience: The music was insipid hip-hop, better suited to a club than a nice restaurant. The electric candle on the table was very bright and had an annoying flicker. Defective. I eventually turned it off. The booths were uncomfortable and the backs didn't go high enough, putting me so close to the diner behind me it was hard to ignore his voice. So close that if we both tilted out heads back we would have bumped heads! Finally, when I visited the rest room I found a wastebasket overflowing with paper towels.
For dessert, the Basque Cheesecake appealed. The cheesecake part was actually good, light like a Basque style should be. But ruined by the chocolate ganache filling the interior and decorating the plate. Too sweet and way too much of it. Too much whipped cream too, unattractively added in melty dollops. And there was a doily under the cake, very easy to miss, which should have been removed before serving. The best part was the plump, ripe tangy blackberries.
