| rev:text
| - We dined at Moxie for the first time this past Friday.
The first thing I noticed was the Valet Parking. Even though this is a finer dining establishment, I still found it a bit odd they offered Valet, seeing Moxie has their very own private lot with all spaces within a limited distance to the front door. But like I said, this is a finer dining establishment, so I suppose I can't fault the place in offering the option to those who want to pay. Just made it seem a little pretentious when I saw two Ferrari's parked via valet within 10 feet from the restaurant's entrance. Are people that lazy, or are they just that hard up for attention?
Since the weather was nice, we chose to sit on the Patio. The outdoor area was pretty well decorated with mood lighting, artwork and well placed landscaping to hide the adjacent parking lot. There was even a live 3 piece band who played soft melodies throughout the night.
We got seated pretty close to the outdoor bar, so it was pretty loud, which made conversation rather difficult. But I guess you'll have that in an outdoor space. I was disappointed that neither the hostess who seated us, nor the waiter offered any nightly specials. We were both shoved multiple menu's and after a few, were asked if we made a decision. I expected a more proper introduction. I also asked for a recomendation and the waiter answered by saying something was "really good", "his favorite", etc. Our waiter was nice, don't get me wrong, but I would've expected more knowledge from a server at an establishment such as Moxie.
Upon ordering drinks, I found the beer menu lacking. The most exciting beer they offered was Smithwicks. The wine menu was very extensive though. Moxie even has a Sommelier that walks around giving professional advice for pairings or just to chat amongst the winos.
Onto the food. I ordered the stuffed peppers with heirloom tomatoes on garlic bread for an appetizer. The dish was excellent. There were 3 peppers total and each of them a notch hotter in temperature, which I imagine was by design. The heirloom tomatoes were also a nice touch. Very fresh and flavorful.
For the main course, I had to order the burger. Why you might ask did I order a Burger among all the other offerings? Because it was an $18.50 burger! I had to see what an eighteen dollar burger tasted like!
The burger was intimidating. The massive hunk of meat was served in between a kaiser bun and piled with lettuce, tomato, cheddar, bacon and sauted red onion. A side of fries and fried onion strings with ketchup accompanied the burger. The burger was cooked perfectly to my request. Overall, it was satisfying, but lacked the knockout punch I expected from an $18.50 burger. I imagine it's possible that I built my hopes up too high, expecting perfection, but I can say that I've had better for $5 (happy hour at Lolita). This burger from Moxie was pretty basic. Aside from being mammoth in size, there was nothing about it that set it apart from the rest. Personally, I thought it was boring. No special sauce, only mayo smeared on the bun, with a side of store bought ketchup (tasted like Heinz). A grilled kaiser bun is typical for your run of the mill burger, but for this, I would've expected a more substantial hunk of crusty goodness to hold such a hunk of meat. The bun they served it on wasn't nearly adequate. The bottom started to fall apart halfway though my meal. The bacon was fatty and undercooked. I also noticed that the onion that was served with it was just the outer peal, not a full slice, which made for a weird texture.
My dining companion wasn't as critical as I was and enjoyed her meal very much. She ordered the salmon.
For dessert, we shared the Baked Hot Chocolate. The whipped Creme and Cocoa was a perfect reminder of winter's favorite tasty beverage, only more substantial and in dessert form.
Overall, Moxie has the potential to be something really special, but since I found it lacking in several areas I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars. A little less attention on image and a little more focus on quality and this place would be phenomenal.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)