rev:text
| - I came here last week with a friend who was in from out of town. We made a last minute reservation for a Friday night. As it turns out, the reservation wasn't necessary, as the restaurant was fairly (and surprisingly) empty. We got a table outside near one of the fountains and were promptly greeted by our waiter, who kindly gave us some time to chat and look at the drink menu. I ordered a lemongrass mojito, which was lacking in lemongrass flavor, and my buddy ordered a Manhattan, which he said was good. We ordered some shishitos at the same time as the cocktails - they came out insanely quickly. Unfortunately, they weren't the best shishitos, and I actually enjoyed the little bits of brussels which were intermixed more than the peppers.
For dinner, we decided to split some sushi and then each got a bowl. We got two rolls, the shrimp tempura and one of the nightly special rolls, which had mango, avocado, and spicy tuna in it. The mango/avocado roll was quite delicious; the tempura roll was pretty much what you'd expect.
In theory, my pork cheek bowl was going to be phenomenal. In reality, it lacked on the execution. The meat itself was tender and delicious, but everything else about the bowl was fairly bland. Overall, it lacked in the seasoning department. The sauce tasted something like a pad thai sauce, but thinned down. There was a little bit of cilantro, but not nearly enough, and the whole thing would have benefited from some additional salinity.
When the time came to pay our bill, our waiter had ghosted on us. It took about 30 minutes for him to show up (after we asked for him) and he did apologize for forgetting about us, as he had been serving some tables on the second floor and got caught up.
Overall:
Food: 3 stars
Service: 3 stars
Venue: 4 stars
Will I return? Yes, but I'll give them a little more time to work out their growing pains. I'll probably go back for happy hour.
|