Ever Visited a Diamond in the Rough?
San Pedro, CA.
Ports O' Call
We asked the concierge for a moderately priced steakhouse with a view. Well, that's what we got! A view of the LA Port - hundreds of containers coming in from overseas. We got steak too, really bad steak at that!
The whole experience was wildly strange. We walked into a beautiful foyer looking around to determine what we should do. Off a distance to the right was a hostess stand with a greeter. Why the greeting desk wasn't front and center we'll never know. The whole ambiance was rustic with marina touches. Interesting but the disconnect was the flashy art that was hanging in the wall. The colors popped, it was great for a highly modern yuppie establishment. Nothing wrong with yuppies by the way, but definitely the wrong touch for rustic marina.
The greeter wasn't all that either. She was very drab... as she escorted us to our table she stopped in the middle of the dining room and we were unclear if she was routing us to a specific table or telling us to take a pick. It was a silent journey from the desk to the table, so we were feeling uneasy about what was happening.
Finally we sat and she stared motionless unless we were entirely situation and comfortable in our seats before handing us the menu.
Next we are greeted by our server who is quiet as a mouse, I never did catch her name, was that a strategy so she wouldn't be mentioned in the blog? LOL.
We received bread and butter - someone tell me why the butter always comes out frozen? How are you supposed to spread frozen butter? I don't get it, I've never gotten it. But, all the high-end places do it... Ruth's Chris, Lawry's, Shula's, St. Elmo's steak houses. It's crazy.
The soup arrived and was loaded with fat. Not sure if it was butter or olive oil, but the first 1/4 inch of the broth in the chicken noodle soup was all grease. Given in my early days I may have made that stupid mistake thinking fat was flavor. Not a mistake a seasoned chef (or even cook) should be making. I don't know what was worse, the fat or the sorely over-cooked noodles. How hard is it to add perfectly cooked noodles to broth at the time of order? If you have to make it in advance cook the noodles a tad underdone, it's really not that hard!
Next arrival was the entree's. Sheila ordered the Chicken Alfredo and I ordered the Rosemary encrusted Rib eye. Both big-time losers. The Rib eye was grizzly and the taste was really poor due to too much rosemary and oil. The marinade was far more flavorful than the steak itself, but the steak was lousy to start so you know - big time bad deal.
Further, the Chicken Alfredo was absolutely flavorless. There are many ways to make alfredo, even the simplest can be delicious when you stick to the basics... fresh cream, fresh parmesan, butter, typical garlic, onion, maybe some shrooms. This is way too easy to screw it up. Even the chicken was over char-grilled. Oh yeah, one more gripe before I shut up... the mashed potatoes which were served with the steak were horrible. We were there at 5PM exactly when the restaurant opened. There is no reason the mashed potatoes should have been ruined on their first customer of the day. Bottom line, they went into a steam table to sit, for far too long, and in far too hot of a stream table. Ridiculous and elementary mistakes.
Why a diamond in the rough? This place had so much going for it, the facilities though dated only need minor updates to be poised as one of the hottest steakhouses in San Pedro. The kitchen staff was a 1-2 on scale of 1-10. So, a great facility needing updated, and a horrible staff needing replaced from the greeter to the wait staff to the kitchen help. I can't help but think the owner of the restaurant must not be connected to food at all. Sometimes owners are mere investors, and they have no real keen ability to know what food is great and what food stinks.
I can't believe it. I really can't.
Ports O' Call
We asked the concierge for a moderately priced steakhouse with a view. Well, that's what we got! A view of the LA Port - hundreds of containers coming in from overseas. We got steak too, really bad steak at that!
The whole experience was wildly strange. We walked into a beautiful foyer looking around to determine what we should do. Off a distance to the right was a hostess stand with a greeter. Why the greeting desk wasn't front and center we'll never know. The whole ambiance was rustic with marina touches. Interesting but the disconnect was the flashy art that was hanging in the wall. The colors popped, it was great for a highly modern yuppie establishment. Nothing wrong with yuppies by the way, but definitely the wrong touch for rustic marina.
The greeter wasn't all that either. She was very drab... as she escorted us to our table she stopped in the middle of the dining room and we were unclear if she was routing us to a specific table or telling us to take a pick. It was a silent journey from the desk to the table, so we were feeling uneasy about what was happening.
Finally we sat and she stared motionless unless we were entirely situation and comfortable in our seats before handing us the menu.
Next we are greeted by our server who is quiet as a mouse, I never did catch her name, was that a strategy so she wouldn't be mentioned in the blog? LOL.
We received bread and butter - someone tell me why the butter always comes out frozen? How are you supposed to spread frozen butter? I don't get it, I've never gotten it. But, all the high-end places do it... Ruth's Chris, Lawry's, Shula's, St. Elmo's steak houses. It's crazy.
The soup arrived and was loaded with fat. Not sure if it was butter or olive oil, but the first 1/4 inch of the broth in the chicken noodle soup was all grease. Given in my early days I may have made that stupid mistake thinking fat was flavor. Not a mistake a seasoned chef (or even cook) should be making. I don't know what was worse, the fat or the sorely over-cooked noodles. How hard is it to add perfectly cooked noodles to broth at the time of order? If you have to make it in advance cook the noodles a tad underdone, it's really not that hard!
Next arrival was the entree's. Sheila ordered the Chicken Alfredo and I ordered the Rosemary encrusted Rib eye. Both big-time losers. The Rib eye was grizzly and the taste was really poor due to too much rosemary and oil. The marinade was far more flavorful than the steak itself, but the steak was lousy to start so you know - big time bad deal.
Further, the Chicken Alfredo was absolutely flavorless. There are many ways to make alfredo, even the simplest can be delicious when you stick to the basics... fresh cream, fresh parmesan, butter, typical garlic, onion, maybe some shrooms. This is way too easy to screw it up. Even the chicken was over char-grilled. Oh yeah, one more gripe before I shut up... the mashed potatoes which were served with the steak were horrible. We were there at 5PM exactly when the restaurant opened. There is no reason the mashed potatoes should have been ruined on their first customer of the day. Bottom line, they went into a steam table to sit, for far too long, and in far too hot of a stream table. Ridiculous and elementary mistakes.
Why a diamond in the rough? This place had so much going for it, the facilities though dated only need minor updates to be poised as one of the hottest steakhouses in San Pedro. The kitchen staff was a 1-2 on scale of 1-10. So, a great facility needing updated, and a horrible staff needing replaced from the greeter to the wait staff to the kitchen help. I can't help but think the owner of the restaurant must not be connected to food at all. Sometimes owners are mere investors, and they have no real keen ability to know what food is great and what food stinks.
I can't believe it. I really can't.
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