Atmosphere: I really think they missed on the "modern" feel. The bar area at least, resembles the boarding area of an airport. Maybe that's the look they were going for. I didn't like it at all and felt it gave a weird vibe. They did have another dining room which looked comfortable and cozy. We were sat in between the two in front of the sushi bar and kitchen area.
Is this place dressy or casual? I went thinking it was dressy --- it seemed half the patrons were dressy and half were casual. The wine offerings also confused me. They had bottles on their wine list that you could purchase at Giant Eagle. They have expanded their offerings at GE, so maybe this is not as weird as it sounds? I don' know.
We had a big group so I was lucky enough to try a few different things off the menu. Onto the food, AMAZING! Everything was great. We started out with the Naan which was accompanied by 3 delicious sauces: hummus, olive tapenade, and some sort of spicy mayo-y sauce possibly. The naan was perfectly cooked and served warm. Of the three dipping sauces I preferred the spicy one and olive tapenade to the hummus. We have the Table 45 roll which was delicious. Followed by the Arugula Salad --- with pine nuts!!! I love pine nuts so that was a great addition and the light citrus vinaigrette was a great balance to the bitter arugula.
Entree wise: I ordered the short ribs. WOW! They were packed with flavor and fell apart like butter. I didn't use a knife at all. The mixture of the squash and potatoes was pretty good. The short ribs were really really great and I'm salivating thinking about them. I also tried the duck. It was excellent - packed with flavor. Cooked to perfection. It was my dad's entree and he enjoyed it more than the duck he ordered from Lola last weekend.
Needless to say, food was delicious and we will definitely be back! If only their "look" matched the quality of the food ....