Category: restaurant reviews

There’s lots of hype surrounding Burger Bar, the Las Vegas creation of Hubert Keller known for his San Francisco restaurant, Fleur de Lys. I ate lunch there last week with John and our friends, Karen and George. There is an extensive burger menu and you can spend anywhere from $8 to $60 for a burger. There are all sorts of toppings for the burgers and lots of sides. We all ordered the Ridgefield beef burger, Karen opting for cheese as well. There were also two orders of onion rings and one of french fries. The burgers were perfectly cooked – the medium, medium-rare, and rare all cooked as requested. John felt his needed a little salt but I thought they were perfectly seasoned. Our son, Jonathan, ate here last year and his opinion is that the burgers are bland, but they were great last week. I felt the accompanying onions rings were too breaded for my taste but the others found them fine. The french fries were also very good. For a taste of what a hamburger on a bun should be, check out the Burger Bar the next time you are in Las Vegas.

Remembering that this is not haute cuisine –
Table consensus – A

From the sublime (Mesa Grill) to the ridiculous. I went with John and our friends to Café Diablo, a highly rated restaurant near Capitol Reef National Park. I was psyched. I had been eating under Utah rules for a long time. Perhaps I should have waited. Here’s what we ordered and what we thought.
Rattlesnake cakes – These cakes were either overpowered by the black beans and cilantro, rattlesnake is really subtle or there was no snake.
Firecrackers – These were deep fried items, some spicy, some not; all heavily breaded.
Empinadas – These were filled with Cotija cheese and sweet potatoes and were quite good.
Crown rack of glazed ribs – Three of us had this. They were supposed to be slow roasted in chipotle, molasses and rum glaze over a bed of sweet potatoes. In the center of the crown was a large fried potato stick served at room temperature. This made it greasy and inedible. The sweet potatoes were grainy and awful. The crown rack was neither gooey and sweet nor tart or anything other than a bunch of steamed ribs.
Pumpkin seed trout – A little overcooked with a great mélange of vegetables which didn’t really go with the trout. Oddly, instead of the wild rice pancake underneath, there was the non-rattlesnake cake.

Add to this, the undrinkable house red wine and the low level of ambiance, you come up with a restaurant that you hoped so much for and delivered so little.

Oh Utah, Utah, you are so beautiful and friendly. And I know you are overwhelmingly LDS. But there are those of us who want to retire here who crave fine restaurants and a wine list. Couldn’t you compromise a bit and try to make things a little more congenial for us? We would both prosper.

Table consensus – D

All the very best restaurants are in Las Vegas. All the chefs you see on TV. And many more you don’t. Las Vegas has become a culinary mecca. On Monday night, we ate at Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill. To be honest, I’ve never liked him as a TV chef. He always has seemed to be a little too much of a know-it-all. But after eating at Mesa Grill, I think he knows a lot.

First of all, there is a fine wine list. We had separate glasses since everyone was eating something different. The Talbot chardonnay was especially good. There’s also a long list of margaritas. One was much like the wondrous Earl Gilmore Memorial Margarita that I’ve mentioned in the past except with Cointreau instead of Triple Sec. The four of us ordered a combination of appetizers, sides and main courses. Here’s what we had.

Romaine salad – excellent, a background spicy taste with anchovy overtones and a frico.
Sophie’s chopped salad – good, although something you could make at home.
Tiger shrimp and roasted garlic corn tamale – good, although the shrimp and the tamale seemed like separate units.
Blue Corn Pancake with barbecued duck and habanero chile sauce – exceptional, sweet and pungent.
Smoked chicken and black bean quesadilla with avocado and toasted garlic crème fraiche – very good.
Sweet potato gratin and smoked chiles – Cosmic!
Brussel sprouts – I know you can’t believe it but it’s a toss up between this and the sweet potato gratin for highest honors in my book. Simply prepared, butter and spices and unbelievably good.
Grilled venison chops with crushed blackberry/red wine vinegar sauce and sweet potato gratin. Really good with the sweet potato gratin stealing the show again.

Table consensus for Mesa Grill – A

This isn’t really a restuarant review because everyone know what Chili’s is like. It’s more like reporting on a comedy of errors. I guess what it really boils down to is that Chili’s needs to train its staff before letting them wait on you kamikaze style. John and I planned to have lunch at the airport because we know what the snacks are like on Southwest and we would be flying and changing planes for the next 7 hours. So we ate at the Chili’s in Tampa airport. John ordered a Caribbean chicken salad and I ordered the soup and salad combination. Easy enough, wouldn’t you think? But no. And it was the soup and salad combo that was the problem. It’s listed on the menu as Soup and Salad, a bowl of one of their soups and a choice between a small dinner salad or a caesar salad for $5.99. I ordered vegetable soup and a dinner salad with blue cheese dressing. Problem number 1, waitress does not know how to use the computer entering system. Number 2, she does not know if it is a cup or bowl, so we helpfully give her the menu so she can read the portion sizes. Number 3, John’s salad comes and my soup comes out, but no salad. We ask about the salad. She will check. Number 4, manager comes over to find out if everything is okay. We say, no salad. Number 5, waitress brings small caesar salad instead of dinner salad. We say nothing. I decide just to eat the caesar. Number 6, manager brings large chicken caesar salad. Number 7, someone else brings small caesar salad. Number 8, the first bill is wrong. Number 9, the second bill is wrong. Number 10, we are comped for our lunch. Number 10 was the only non-problem. Do I walk under a restaurant black cloud?

Bayview Restaurant has a lovely setting. It is on the water in the new Esplanade which contains condos, shops, a marina and restaurants. There’s a tiki bar and outdoor as well as indoor dining. We went there for a Mother’s Day dinner. Our reservations were for 7 PM. We were seated at a table next to the window and heard about the specials. We ordered a lovely bottle of 2003 Sonoma Cutrer Chardonnay. We also started by sharing an order of fried calamari. We have a quest going on with fried calamari to find a restaurant that prepares it as well as Starz in Oakville, CA did before it went out of business. I have to say that this calamari was almost it! It was perfectly cooked and served with a mango chutney and a chipotle aioli. It was just a tiny bit more breaded than perfect but, oh yes, I would definitely order it again. Definitely an “A” for calamari.

As has happened in the past when you eat in Marco, the special I ordered which was dry-pack day boat scallops with a vanilla sauce and plantains had run out. ( see Kretch’s) So I changed my order to seafood cakes which came with plantains and mixed vegetables and a mango sauce. They were very good. Lots of seafood and crispy on the outside while soft inside. John ordered ahi tuna which he asked for just seared and basically raw inside. Although his tuna was very good, it was a thinish piece, maybe 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick and was pink in the middle rather than purple. Perhaps east coast ahi tuna is different from west coast? He had rice and veggies with it.

Overall I good restaurant. Big plusses for the setting and the calamari. A very nice touch by giving moms a rose at the end of dinner. Small minuses for not having the special, rolls that were a little stale and overcooking the tuna a bit.

John’s grade – B+
Mary’s grade – B+

In case you don’t read the comments, here are Jen’s favorite restaurants.

In no particular order:
Darrell’s, Manteo, NC (still the best hush puppies and crabcakes I’ve ever tasted)
Old Ebbitt Grill, Washington, DC (asparagus and ham strata on a Sunday morning…and the closest I’ll ever get to eating at the White House)
Fire & Ice, Middlebury, VT (grossly overpriced but very tasty entrees, and my favorite salad/bread/cheese bar)
The Keg, Toronto, Ontario (fantastic steakhouse with incredible service, every time)
Chef Geoff’s, Washington, DC (cozy atmosphere with an adventurous chef who does lovely things with potatoes)
E&O Trading Co., San Francisco, CA (a pomegranate margarita) (or two)
Five Guys, Alexandria, VA (the best fresh hamburgers and fries, with a giant box of peanuts available while you wait)

Thanks so much, Jen, for sending them along.

I’ve been taking to task by one of my blog readers. She feels I am too negative in my restaurant reviews and I would improve my life if I could take a more positive view of things. I think that I try to give credit where credit is due. But just to let you know that I do find many restaurants really good, here is my “A” list. Some of these restaurants may no longer be in business and some may have gone downhill since I was there, but the meals I had at them were great at the time.

The overall best restaurant I have ever eaten at –
Enoteca Pinchiorri, Florence, Italy

Other “A” List Restuarants
Bernard Morillon, Beaune, France (foie gras in a gingerbread crust)
Oak City Grill, Menlo Park, CA (scallops)
Cafe Des Artistes, Key West, Florida ( vegetables)
Pastavino, Florence, Italy
Jacques, Chicago, Illinois (fish en croute with 2 sauces)
L’eperlan, Quebec, Quebec (coquilles St. Jacques)
Le Filles du Roy, Montreal, Quebec (assiette Canadienne)
Domaine Chandon, Yountville, CA
Starz, Oakville, CA (no longer in business but the best fried calamari ever!)
Nob Hill, Las Vegas, NV (mashed potato sampler!)
Braverman’s Deli, Chicago (John’s #1 favorite)

And there are more but I am hoping to go back to them and do a more current review.

What are your favorites and why?

I’m using this title in jest since I’ve already written in a previous post about our family’s avoidance of certain words in the names of restaurants. But in this case, I’m Mom and John’s the Cap’n and the kitchen is our kitchen here in Marco Island. Last night we made an excellent meal. We started by visiting the local fish market, Paradise Fish Co.,and followed that with a trip to Publix for those tiny green beans that you can also find at Trader Joe’s. We grilled the escolar (quite a yummy fish) with some olive oil, lemon and salt, cooked the green beans ala Jacques Pepin (a little water and butter and by the time the water has evaporated the beans are cooked and are then sauteing in the butter), and enhanced some rice with chicken stock, a bay leaf, sauteed onions and garlic and lemon zest. We opened a nice bottle of white wine and, voila, a great dinner which cost about $25 to make and would have cost at least three times as much in a restaurant. Plus we could eat it next to the pool in our bathing suits! Sometimes I wonder why eating out seems so appealing.

Okay, I know, chain restaurant. But last night by the time we got into Fort Lauderdale and checked into the hotel, it was almost 10 PM, our stomachs were on Pacific time and there wasn’t much open. I think how much you enjoy a restaurant also depends on what your expectations are. In visiting The Olive Garden, I wasn’t expecting gourmet or expensive, just something okay and reasonable. So we had salad and breadsticks, the usual stuff they put on the table. The salad was good and the breadsticks were salty and flabby. John had mussels and I had eggplant parmesan. The mussels were good and the eggplant was okay. At least you could taste that it was eggplant. There was a fresh tomato sauce which was a little on the sweet side and an uninspired lump of spaghetti. It was all fine. We also had a bottle of Montevina pinot grigio. The bill came to $44.

So unlike the experience at the Silver Palate where we spent $100 for bad food, we had reasonable food at a reasonable price. Maybe our expectations were just lower or after flying all day with only a snack, we were really hungry. But our experience at The Olive Garden was good and even though we got there 5 minutes before they were ending dinner service, the waitstaff was friendly and efficient.

John’s grade – B+
Mary’s grade – B

Last night, with our friends, Karen and George, we went to a new restaurant in downtown Pleasanton, The Silver Palate. This restaurant is owned by the same people who owned Baci’s down the street. Unfortunately, the food is nowhere as good. As starters we had mushroom soup, butternut squash soup and a Caesar salad. The mushroom soup was quite disappointing, thin with a strange vinegary taste. For main courses, George had halibut with a Thai salad, very cabbage-y and an odd combination. Karen had steak and shrimp, good shrimp and spinach, adequate steak. John had a mushroom risotto which he said was merely okay due to the fact that it was not very creamy. I had veal marsala which had no marsala taste but was overwhelming acidic with tough veal that seemed to have been boiled rather than sauteed. On the plus side, the waitstaff was very nice and helpful.

Grade for The Silver Palate – D+ (+ for the waitstaff and the spinach side)