When you walk in, you're greeted with lots of warm toned wood, dark and rich, in the bar and lobby area. And it's spacious, much more so than you expect for a little-known restaurant located in this area. The dining room itself combines sea tones with brighter accents (like orange place mats) and generally keeps to the contemporary theme the whole place has going for it.
The menu is filled with a combination of brunch standards, many with some interesting twists, and a few just straight up new and novel dishes. Having looked at the menu before arriving, we wasted no time ordering two starters (which we claimed we weren't going to finish to leave room for our mains - hah!). N chose the ricotta fritters while B selected the churros. Two fried items to start the brunch? Sign me up, I'm training for a half marathon, it will be fine, right? Don't care. It was TOTALLY worth it. The churros arrived hot and crispy and sweet (and if I'm being honest, a little phallic looking). The ricotta fritters came cloaked in slices of caramelized peach and begging to be dipped in the lavender honey that accompanied them. One word - delicious.
The churro or a good reason to love Sea Pearl
Ricotta fritters with the peach accessories
After mowing through our starters (there was one churro and one fritter remaining, both of which would be devoured before the meal was done), we sat back to wait for our mains. Their arrival was met with more awe as we dug in. B had chosen the foie gras benedict, a fun twist on an old standard. While I'm not much for foie gras, it's something B always enjoys and his opinion of this dish was clear when he was the first one to clean his plate by several minutes (a title that as a former waitress who used to live by the "eat it fast while it's hot" mentality, I generally claim).
English muffin, foie gras, poached egg and hollandaise
N decided to give their upscale slant on the burger a try, ordering the Wagyu beef burger. This large burger arrived open faced, served with caramelized onions and sharp cheddar. While normally also served with garlic fries, this potato side isn't one of N's favorites leading her to choose a healthier option- steamed spinach. Another win with this dish as it was well prepared, juicy and delicious.
Beautiful burger presentation
After playing obnoxious food blogger and snapping pics of everything on the table, I finally got to dig into my own Cajun-style shrimp roll served with a mixed green salad and garlic fries. The shrimp had lots of spice but somehow still retained its fresh shellfish flavor. The roll was buttery and soft and made a great compliment to the shrimp. And of course there were the garlic fries, which in an absurd act of self restraint I only ate half of, but they were good enough to clean the plate!
Mmm...shrimp
Clearly, this was a meal filled with highlights. But there was one lowlight too - the service. Up until our mains arrived the service was fine, attentive but not intrusive, what you'd expect. Then our meals were delivered and it was as though the server's responsibility to our table was complete. We had to actually get up and go to the bar to get our check. Not cool. I'm going to throw the place a bone and say that they did get slammed with what looked like two servers on the floor, but that's when you get your host or bar staff to help out with things like filling water and delivering checks. Since the service was fine the first time B and I went, we're hoping this is a fluke and are willing to give the place another chance since the food is excellent, but it's a one more shot deal.
No comments:
Post a Comment