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| - I came here for dinner with a girlfriend on a Saturday night. I've been wanting to try this place since I heard that the old NAO got a makeover. Upon first impression, the interiors + ambience were truly fantastic - they did a great job!
Unfortunately the food was only okay, at best.
Here's what we ordered, in the order that we received the food:
Octopus: 7/10 - this was probably the most delicious dish, although it was very small and the flavours don't come close to the polipo at mamakas, or the more casual, pantheon. Even restaurants that aren't known for their octopus have created more delicious dishes, Portland Variety and Jules' Bistro, for example.
NB: the best part of this dish was the sauce it was sitting in - orange in colour and creamy in flavour.
Clams: 6/10 - Overall, we found this dish extremely boring. I had to request the charred bread, which later came fresh, not charred. Whatever they stuffed into the clams and in the sauce was half cooked, so there was an unintentional crunchiness. Overall, very MEH.
Celery Salad: 3/10 - quite literally, this was two to three celery sticks chopped up and topped with pine nuts. At first, my girlfriend and I laughed to each other, but this was an extremely sad plate. I should give the kitchen some credit, in that the pine nuts enhance the taste of the celery... but, really?!
Grilled Broccolini: 7/10 - the broccolini was sitting in the same sauce as the octopus, which was probably the highlight of the night. It was well cooked, perfect amount of crunch, and the red pepper sauce (?) it was resting on top of was delicious.
Braised Cauliflower: 0/10 - this was a complete joke. We had about two pieces and couldn't stomach any more. It was undercooked cauliflower in a tomato puree sauce. This dish initiated a ten minute conversation with my foodie friend on the value of cooking tomato sauces on low, for a long time. We agreed that it tasted like a cheap can of tomato puree was put in the microwave for 45 seconds and drizzled onto undercooked cauliflower; it was truly disgusting!
Greek Branzino: 8/10 - Fresh fish! It was cooked with olive oil and salt. Again, this was delicious, but for the price you're much better off going elsewhere.
All of this, + 1/2L of wine ran us $220 or so. Not a terrible price point, but we left feeling underwhelmed and slightly disappointed.
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