vincent on camelback

all right, mr. demille, i'm ready for my close-up. that is a line said by norma desmond in a great film noir movie called "hollywood boulevard" from 1950. it won 3 academy awards - more later.

as you walk into vincent's the atmosphere is very nice. the awards are on a wall and include a framed magazine cover proclaiming "50 best restaurants in america". we proceeded to look at the menu and prepared for a great dinner. when iorderedthe lemon sole ($32) the server proclaimed its greatness and the wonderful corn risotto upon which it's served.

the meal arrived. you know it's good fish and done well when you start to eat and the fish just falls apart in flakes; yum. at vincent's they evidently thaw the fish and then leave it in the fridge a while because my lemon sole was mush. the only way it was going to flake would be if you froze it again and chipped off a spear point. the risotto was regular rice with some kernels of corn. the sauce was ok but the dish really reminded me of lean cuisine. red lobster does a better job for considerably less.

my companion decided to make a meal from several appetizers and we shared. the first was baked brie in puff pastry. the brie was surrounded not with puff pastry but with some type of boiled cardboard. just kidding; i'm sure it had been a form of puff pastry earlier in the week.

i could go on about the bread from the bakery outlet store or the horrible scallops but i think i'll go straight to the part where they overcharged us $25 by adding an entrée and bottled water to our ticket. this tells me every part of the operation is sloppy, not just the food.

i think you get the picture. speaking of which, norma desmond was a character in "hollywood boulevard" who had been a great hollywood star, whose career was over, but who still thought she was a great star.

welcome to vincent's.

3 out of 5 stars. came to vincent's for arizona restaurant week 2010. i'm not sure i would go back, unless someone else recommended vincents.

service was friendly, but i don't think the food was worth the cost.

the warm croissants to begin with are delicious! started off with a salad and brie. the salad was so-so, but the brie was flaky and melt in your mouth good.

for the main course, my sister and i split the lobster and scallops. the lobster was good, however there was hardly any meat. the scallops weren't moist, but more crab-cake consistency and very dry. maybe because they were macadamia-nut crusted?

for dessert, iorderedthe warm chocolate tart, but it was so rich and dense, i had to ask for some ice cream to go with it. my sisterorderedthe bread pudding, which was 10 times better! the creme brulee was really good too.

i'm glad i got to experience vincents, especially during arizona restaurant week, but i doubt i'll go back for a very long time.

spendy, decent food, poor service. this was almost a dislike vote, but the food saved it.

vincent's has two areas, one is the restaurant, the other is the bistro. the restaurant was almost empty close to 7pm but for the 6 or so bar fly aristocrat wanna-be's wanting to be "seen" (if you know what i mean).

our drink waiter brought out he waters and the cocktails but forgot to bring back the wine list which was requested - the first of a series of annoyances to come.
when he did deliver the wine list of 20 or so pages, he returned within 2 minutes and gave our guest the hurry up to order. seemingly he had better things to do - maybe he was also serving in the bistro?

our food waiter arrived and we were somewhat surprised that this guy could hardly remember his own name let alone our orders. thankfully he wrote them down.

iorderedthe lobster bisque which was absolutely superb, in fact so good that iorderedanother for desert later.

my new zealand lamb chops were nicely prepared and i counted 8 chops which was a generous serving, even though they were fairly small.

we allorderedsoufflé except for me. these were huge and 2 were split between four people. iorderedthe lobster bisque again, it was that good.
when the soufflés arrived, they were both lemon instead of one chocolate, however, we all received a warm chocolate mud cake for some reason, which we didn't order. i suspect the waiter might have been confused (again) unfortunately no sign of my bisque, which i had to order again with the waiter saying "oh i thought you were joking" (about wanting it for desert). seemed like a pretty straight forward request to me?

overall, i think we will stick to the vincent's saturday market fare in future - can't go wrong there.

great service.... scott is amazing. we have only been in a few times but he always remembers our names and turns around our order very fast. weorderedeggs in a hole and french toast both look unique and taste great.