has potential, but needs work. we went with friends on a very busy, crowded fri. night. everyone was nicely dressed - some 'art deco-ish' to match atmosphere - so that aspect was very nice. physical plant is a 10 - beautiful decor, stylish, great chargers and glassware. but very, very noisy and loud. so loud that we could only converse with the persons next to us or directly across from us. we were 8 people on a rectangular table. but we couldn't carry on a conversation with half of our party.
the problems are typical of a new restaurant, which we didnt expect from such experienced resturanteurs. first, it was woefully understaffed. our waiter, who was very nice and working very, very hard, explained near the dnd of our meal that two servers had quit earlier in the evening. (we know finding and keeping good servers is the. biggest challenge in the area.) nevertheless, a top restaurant
needs to manage good service. it took us 30+ minutes to order and get simple drinks. (one mixed drink which was one of their specialty drinks so shouldn't have taken extra time, and all the rest were glasses of wine of the day and one bottle.)
twhen we finally ordered. the menu was good, not inspired. the exe cution was spotty. the 'staggering dragon" shrimp cocktail was excellent, but oversold in its name. it was four huge prawns perfectly cooked. but the "staggering dragon" was merely hot horseradish cocktail sauce. no special ingredients or flavors. and i don't recall any shredded lettuce or unique greens that would have kicked it up a notch.
the sauce choices for the entrees was great. far larger variety than weve seen most anywhere. to me, the best part of the meal was the oscar sauce/side. it was large chunks of king crab w grilled white & green asparagusin a generous serving of voluptuous , real hollandaise. absolutely the star of the evening.
the sides were fairly ordinary, except for the truffled mac & cheese you can get in the gastropub next door. the "salt crusted" baked potato was neither crusty nor fresh. it had the rookie or second tier mistake - it obviously had been sitting in the warmer for a good while. with 8of us, we tried most all the sides. meh ! the individual caesar salad was a nice option to have and the price ($ 7) was ok. but it didnt taste the least bit 'caesar'. was tasty and the size was good, but it was rather bland when expecting a caesar at a fine restaurant.
there was no salt and pepper on the tables. it is the chef's preference and our server did bring us some... in cheesy little shakers. what we found unacceptable was that there was no fresh ground pepper available.
finall.y, the meat dishes had little or no sauce, though as previously mentioned, there were many to choose from for purchase. and though we understand 'ala carte', we're accustomed to some garnish or siim ple vegetables with the entree. there were no vegetables at all included.
we will go back. we want to see 31 succeed. it fills a void in our community. we love the music and the sophistication. right now we'd give it 4.5 stars on atmosphere (a 5 if they can tamp down the noise) and a 3.5 on food. all the food criticisms above are eminently solvable, without great additional expense.
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