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| - This is one of those restaurant ratings that makes me question the palate of some yelpers. I'm quite the food snob, and a bit of an amateur gourmet cook (make my own pastas/sauces/breads/ice creams), so if I eat out, the food should best my abilities in some way. This place simply did not live up to anything near its 5 star yelp rating in any dimension other than its excellent service. Let me say that again: Service was excellent. Waitstaff was very attentive, and the owner was extremely friendly as well. 5 stars for this part of the experience.
Now the food. The prices struck me as being too low for the area. $26 for filet/$17 for homemade pasta seemed cheap to my eyes for dinner. Turns out I was right. I'd bet a fair amount of $$ that this place started with the best intentions and good quality ingredients, but the owner has cut prices and ingredient quality because he cannot figure out what's wrong with the restaurant given such high yelp reviews but poor customer turnout (Place was very quiet on a Saturday night at 8pm in spite of a great jazz band.).
Case in point: my girlfriend's filet was nowhere near a USDA prime or even a choice cut. I'd guess it was a select cut or a 'no roll' piece of meat similar to what's used at a chain steakhouse. On top of that, the steak wasn't seasoned at all--no salt or fresh pepper. It was dreadful.
I ordered the citrus "prawns" and lobster ravioli. The prawns were clearly shrimp, and not even big shrimp: I'd guess they were 15/20 shrimp at best; nowhere near 10/15 shrimp, and they were definitely not prawns. Shrimp were also overcooked and flavorless and were cooked via boiling water rather than seared a la minute. Ravioli texture was great, but filling was mediocre. Sauce was OK, but didn't seem to be thickened via a typical method (butter or cream). My guess is that the sauces are premade in the morning and they found butter-thickened sauces would break on them.
Calamari appetizer was not seasoned, was bland, and overcooked. Calamari were chewy and the tomato sauce served to accompany it was meh.
All in all, the relatively cheap food prices + poor quality of ingredients + shrimp masquerading as "prawns" in my dish convinced me the owner probably started with very high ingredient quality and higher prices, but has lowered his price point and ingredient quality to try to spur demand. I'm guessing he didn't do well, though, even with the best ingredients because the chef in the kitchen clearly isn't the best and doesn't know how to season food. Nothing I ate had even a modicum of salt on it.
If the owner fired the chef and brought in someone new, raised the prices and the ingredient quality, he'd have a winning establishment. I only hope he reads this review because it's clear he's trying his best, is a very affable fellow, and I genuinely want him to succeed.
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