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| - After another great movie experience at Harkins, we decided to try something new. So we find ourselves sharing the second day of life at the Desert Rose Steakhouse in Glendale.
On first observation, it is a clean, minimalist environment. Lighting is soft. Smooth jazz fills the room. You have your choice of black tufted semi circle booths or square tables in the center of the room. Fortunately the TVs in the bar area are easily ignored.
The menu is interesting. For a steakhouse with such expensive entrees, the side dishes are undeniably carb heavy and well, unsophisticated. Absolutely incompatible with a healthy diet. There is one offering of unspecified vegetables.
We ordered the salmon salad and the ciappotta with pasta. They do not offer bread. There are no salt and pepper shakers on the table. I understand that this is generally intended to avoid angering the chef as though he/she can't season food properly. But the chef's feelings aren't important to me. I like pepper.
The salad arrived with a seasoned portion of salmon, a bed of mixed greens, a small cup of cheese and dressing. The lack of textural and flavor variety in the salad was immediately striking. My husband's meal was a brown mess of pasta, mussels, fish and shrimp. Unlike mine, his could not fill a hungry customer.
The manager came by and asked about the meals. Neither of us were delighted and he picked up on it. My sweet husband struggled to be encouraging. I felt that I was being helpful by being honest. The manager offered to supplement my salad with additional vegetables. I appreciated it. I am not sure anything could salvage the brown mess in my husband's bowl. Not even bread for the sauce? Not a single vegetable?
The issue with the ciopatta is that even though there is a variety of seafood atop the optional pasta, they all tasted kind of the same. The sauce was bland and shallow. The pasta simply an afterthought. The presentation offputting.
Our opinion is that this restaurant wants to be "fine dining" (their words) but isn't sure how to get there. The menu is uninspired. The presentation weak. The scant portions, pub style sides, and lack of excitement in the fare will need to change.
The staff was very pleasant and helpful and we do hope that they are respected enough by the powers that be that this type of honest feedback is taken into consideration when moving forward.
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