Red Fish, Blue Fish, Part II

I thought long and hard about where I wanted to use the $25 American Express gift card that was part of the Bonefish Grill Challenge Kit I received and talked about in the first part of this story. The woman who had initially contacted me, Anna, had suggested that many people go to Red Lobster. Considering that I rarely cover national chain restaurants, covering two of them in a row seemed an unwise path for me to follow. If MS&L was willing to send me a gift card, I wanted to showcase something local in Cleveland that was comparable.

I dug around restaurant websites and asked a few friends who they might recommend for a mid-priced local Cleveland restaurant that specializes in (or at least does well) seafood. Ironically, no one could really come up with a good answer because most of the suggestions were at too high of a price point. But, through a bit of luck, I happened upon my answer. I am a member of the Cleveland Restaurant MeetUp group and they had an upcoming dinner scheduled at Restaurant Dante (warning: no music, but semi-gratuitous use of Flash). Having never been, I was eager to check out Chef Dante Boccuzzi's always interesting menu. While the menu wasn't quite as fish centric as Bonefish Grill's had been, it did have a nice selection of seafood and more importantly, it was comparable in price to what I had eaten at Bonefish Grill.

Now before I get any comments on the subject, the core of both meals was very similar. Had I stuck with an appetizer and an entree at Dante, my check would've only been several dollars higher than Bonefish Grill. That being said, at tonight's dinner I was paying for myself and a guest and as there was wine, multiple appetizers, coffee, and dessert as well, clearly, the check at the end of the meal was much more expensive than what I had received at Bonefish Grill.

The original plan was to meet my dining companion, the lovely Miss Penny, in Dante's bar area for a pre-dinner cocktail. Sadly, when I showed at 6:20 PM or so to grab us two seats, the entire bar was already filled. Instead, I waited for her outside and when she walked up, I suggested we walk around the corner and grab a drink at the 806 Martini & Wine Bar. Located at 806 Literary Road, Cleveland, OH 44113, they are just a few short steps from Lolita, Lago, and Dante.

I also knew from having been there in the past that they had some Happy Hour specials. Martinis were listed for only $3, but sadly when I inquired about them, apparently you couldn't get a regular vodka martini for $3, just the fruity ones (such as a Cosmo). The Stolichnaya martini, up, with cheese stuffed olives was a bit more at $9:


For some reason our server kept pushing the "dirty" martini, but I insisted several times that I wasn't interested in a sullied beverage. The resulting cocktail was actually pretty good and the cheese stuffed green olives added a nice salty balance to the vodka. As the time of our group reservation approached, we paid the check and returned to the entrance of Dante.


Valet parking was available, but if you are willing to walk five minutes, there was plenty of curbside parking on the street. After walking into the entrance and telling the hostess of our party affiliation, she directed us around the corner to two long tables where most of the rest of the group were already sitting. After taking our drink order, I got about the business of photographing the menu:



We waited for a bit while the few remaining stragglers trickled in. It gave Penny and I the chance to take in some of the interior decor. Previously a bank, the interior had been transformed only insomuch as the contents had changed. The walls and ceilings had been repainted, yes, but no treatment of any kind had been applied to help with the steadily building noise level. It became apparent soon enough that the only way to hear someone or even better yet, have a conversation, was to sit directly next to them. The restaurant and bar area were both full tonight (which was great for a Thursday evening), but I would suggest Dante invest in some type of acoustical wall and/or ceiling treatment to help with the noise.

After taking our orders, the waiter started the bread service. Here was a shot of our bread:


Instead of butter, small ramekins of white bean and garbanzo bean "hummos" drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with Hungarian paprika were provided to spread on the bread:


The bread was the only item not made in-house. It actually came from the bakery Stone Oven on Lee Road in Cleveland Heights. While Penny selected a multi-grain slice, I ended up with an olive bread. I don't know that I've ever had bread from that bakery before, but I have to tell you, both pieces were absolutely delicious, even without anything to top them. I definitely need to look them up.

Here were shots of my olive bread, plain and topped with a shmear of the hummos:



The "hummos" was correct texturally, but it seemed to be missing the hallmark calling cards of a great hummos: tahini, garlic, and lemon juice. As a spread, it worked well because it didn't mask the flavor of the bread. But calling it hummos? That might be taking too much liberty with the word. All of us sitting at my end of the table agreed that we would ever called it that.

One of the niceties of Dante's menu is that many of the menu items are available in three sizes: Taste, Appetizer, and Entrée. This meant that Penny and I could try a few "tastes" and then still have room for our main courses. Penny left the ordering up to me, so I decided to go with a trio of tastes and ordered what I thought would be two heavier and one lighter taste.

Three items were listed under the risotto section. I decided to choose the Bhutanese Red Rice risotto with asparagus and tarragon:


What many people don't realize is that the word "risotto" describes a style of cooking and not actually a rice dish. I've made a barley risotto in the past and the method is more important than the starch. That being said, while the red rice was completely cooked, to me it was more of a pilaf style dish than a risotto. There was no creaminess to the rice and the grains were completely separate. The flavor was quite light and this would've been a marvelous accompaniment to a nice piece of broiled fish or pan-seared chicken. The tarragon flavor blended so well with the tender fresh green asparagus that Penny had a hard time picking up on it. The rice dish also lacked a bit of the boldness in flavors that our other dishes seemed to serve up in abundance.

The second taste for the evening was a cup of the Saffron Fish Fume:


Loaded with shrimp balls, orzo and fennel, the soup was ... interesting. The clear broth had an intense, but not overpowering fish flavor to it. While my initial taste of the broth made me at first think the fume was oversalted, as I let the liquid wash over my tongue, I realized that there was a different flavor I was experiencing, and not salt, that was causing me to take notice. The orzo was nicely cooked, soft and tender, and the shrimp balls, tiny orbs floating in the soup, were perfect texturally and had a nice shrimpy brightness to them.

Our final taste of the evening was of the homemade Linguine alla Carbonara:


Served with a poached egg and housemade pancetta, both Penny and I were eager to try this dish out. When it was placed in front of me, I was surprised at how much sauce was already on the noodles. After breaking the egg yolk and mixing it into the noodles,


we each took a bite. The noodles were perfectly cooked, tender but still with a little chew and the yolk-ladened sauce was creamy and decadent. To be honest, I don't remember there being much in the way of pancetta flavor coming from the sauce, but the salt level was perfect. Traditionally, carbonara can also served with fresh peas and I think that the little bit of sweetness would've helped to enhance this dish even more. I'm glad we only got a "taste" portion as an entire entrée would've been extremely rich.

So now that we've finished the bread course and the appetizers, let's take a break and do a little quick comparison between Dante and Bonefish Grill so far.

The bread itself, far and away, goes to Dante. The crust and crumb were spot on and just delicious. Even though Dante doesn't bake their own bread, they get points in my book for using another local Cleveland bakery to supply them. As for the dip/spread, I do like the boldness of the olive oil pesto dip for the bread. However, I also like the fact that the rather cavalierly named "hummos" had a clean flavor and didn't cover up the flavors of the bread. The bread course, most definitely, goes to Dante.

For the appetizer course, it's kind of a mixed bag. The mussels I enjoyed at Bonefish Grill were tender, but the rawness and size of the red onion chunks overpowered the bites that contained them. In addition, there were a few broken mussel shards to remove so that I didn't accidentally eat them. While Dante hit some high points with the homemade Linguine alla Carbonara and the delicateness of the Bhutanese red rice, there were some minor misses as well. I'll call the appetizer course a tie.

Now on to the main event, the fish!

Just like I did with Bonefish Grill, I checked with the Seafood Watch website to make sure that the Alaskan Halibut I was thinking of ordering was on the approved list. Sure enough, the website gave me the green light I wanted. Having finished our appetizers, our tables were cleared, clean cutlery was put out, and soon, the entrées began to arrive.

Here was a shot of my entrée:


And a close up of the halibut:


I had asked for the fish to be cooked medium rare, and just like at Bonefish Grill, it was cooked perfectly to order. The fillet was a nice even thickness, so the flesh was tender, juicy, and slightly translucent from one end to the other. The seasoning was aggressive, but not to the point where I would've considered it over-salted. The surprise on the plate was the sauce on the fish. While the menu describes it as a coconut green curry sauce, which would imply a Thai curry, when I tasted the sauce by itself, I actually thought it tasted exactly like an Indian favorite of mine, Saag (or Palak) Paneer, minus the cheese, of course. I tasted it two or three times, just to make sure my taste buds were still working. When I closed my eyes, I tasted India, not Thailand.

That being said, the halibut was a sturdy enough fish to be able to handle the sauce. It was an interesting combination and the kitchen had put just the right amount of sauce on the plate so that there was at the same time enough sauce to eat the entire fillet, but not so much that it was drowning in it. I think I actually liked the fish marginally better at Bonefish Grill, but the green curry sauce at Dante was the better of the two sauces.

The halibut had been perched (I know, I know, bad pun) on top of a sauté of spinach and sliced shiitake mushrooms. Along with three slices of lotus root, these served as the accompaniments to my fish:


Penny had never seen, much less eaten, lotus root, so I gave her one of mine to try. Lotus root doesn't have a very strong flavor of its own, so I think the reason for its inclusion in the meal was as much visual as gustatory. We also gave each other tastes from our entrées. That way, I could include a description of her dish, too.

Penny decided to go with the Seared Dayboat Scallops:


Penny's litmus test for any kitchen was how well they could prepare scallops. Just a few too many seconds on the heat and they would be dry and chewy. Fortunately, everyone who ordered this dish tonight was rewarded with plump, succulent scallops that had a wonderful sear on the outside. They were sauced with an earthy, slightly bitter sauce which balanced well against the sweetness from the scallops. Penny also let me try one of her "potato strudel," which had the look, feel, and crispness of a nice Greek spanakopita, but was filled with a slightly melted tangy goat cheese instead of spinach and onions.

Having cleared my plate, I realized how pretty darn full I was at that point. When our server brought out the dessert menus, I wasn't sure I wanted anything, but I told Penny to order something if she wanted. She countered that she didn't particularly want an entire dessert either and asked if we could split one. That, I figured, I could do.

Here was a shot of the dessert menu:


Fortunately, the two items on the menu that appealed to Penny were two of the lighter-flavored ones, the hot caramelized Bartlett pears and the citrus and mango napoleon. Knowing that the napoleon had an orange curd as well as a citrus sorbet, I figured that it sounded like the perfect light way to end the meal.

After getting a delicious cup of decaf,


we were served our dessert with two spoons:


This was every bit as light as I had hoped it would be. The shredded phyllo was crispy, sweetened only slightly, and had a wonderful cinnamon undertone to the flavor. When it was set down in front of us, the first thing that popped into both of our heads was Frosted Wheat cereal. I can tell you with certainty, it tasted MUCH better than Frosted Wheat cereal. Sandwiched between the two crispy layers was the citrus sorbet, the orange curd, and fresh slices of pleasantly ripe mango. The plate was sauced with a light mint syrup that really accented the flavors already in the dessert without overpowering them. As full as I had been, I eagerly devoured my half.

Since I revealed my bill total for my Bonefish Grill meal, I feel it only fair to reveal what this dinner at Dante cost me. The bill, including tax, was slightly over $93. That being said, my halibut was only $26 and each of the tastes we had eaten earlier were $4 each. The halibut was also the most expensive seafood item on the menu. Penny's luscious scallops were only $20 and there was a salmon dish on the menu for $21.

So where does that leave us, gentle reader? Each restaurant had its pros and its cons. The food at both restaurants ranged from good to excellent. The service at both was also outstanding. While there were fidgeting and crying babies at Bonefish, the hard edges and lack of acoustical treatments at Dante left me with no conversational partner except the person sitting next to me. My personal proclivity is to return to Restaurant Dante, but that's because I prefer to support the local independent restaurants over the national chains. The flavors at Dante were certainly more adventurous than Bonefish Grill, but as Bonefish Grill has to appeal to a national audience, I would expect the menu to be a little less cutting edge.

Honestly, I think you'll get a good meal at either restaurant. To me it simply comes down to the philosophy of what kind of restaurant you want to support. As I concluded at the end of the first part of this blog series, Restaurant Dante helps to define Cleveland gastronomically from other cities. Bonefish Grill does not. That's not to say you'll have a bad meal if you eat at any of the locations all over the United States. But I know that personally, if I'm going to take the time and effort to travel to another city for business or pleasure, I am purposely going to seek out places of interest that I can't find anywhere else.

Red Fish, Blue Fish, Part I

Several weeks ago I was contacted by Anna Murphy, an Account Associate at MS & L Worldwide. It seems that one of her clients, a national restaurant chain called Bonefish Grill (warning: website contains music and semi-gratuitous use of Flash), was sponsoring a "taste-off" between its cuisine and any other restaurant. Anna had found the blog through an Internet search engine and had written to me wondering if I would be interested in participating. The deal was that I would receive a $25 gift card to Bonefish Grill and a $25 card to use at another local restaurant for comparison.

My first reaction was to scoff at the notion of reviewing a national chain's food. With locations in nearly every state in the country, the cuisine being served at Bonefish Grill doesn't help to define northeast Ohio's gastronomic identity. But as I sat here considering the offer, I realized two very important things. First, I have covered national chains before, just not very often. Second, after confirming with Anna that the second $25 gift card could be used solely at my discretion, I realized that I would be able to highlight a local independent restaurant that DID help to define local cuisine.

As with my experience at Fleming's last year, I made sure Anna was aware of the conditions under which I would accept the offer. First, I would be disclosing both Anna's name and place of employment and the nature of the offer. Second, I promised to be fair in my reviews, whether they be good or bad. And third, I couldn't promise an exact publication date, but would let her know when I did. Having read over my terms, she agreed and arranged to have a package FedEx'd to me with the details. I opened the envelop to find a folder with the two gift cards, a detailed copy of the menu, and an introduction letter. Additionally, they included a stainless steel fish spatula with the name Bonefish Grill imprinted on the rather large kitchen utensil.

I decided to execute part one of the plan and have my meal at Bonefish Grill. The Cleveland area's only Bonefish Grill was located at 6150 Rockside Place, Independence, OH 44131 and can be reached at 216-520-2606. The restaurant shares building space with an Outback Steakhouse and resides just west of the Holiday Inn. In fact, to get to the building, I needed to enter through the Holiday Inn entranceway. There was ample parking around the building.

Here was a shot of the front door:

While reservations aren't required and I certainly didn't think I would need one on a Wednesday night at 6:30, the restaurant was surprisingly full when I arrived. Fortunately there was an empty two top near the rear of the restaurant, so I only waited a few minutes. I noticed two items right away, one the restaurant controls and one the restaurant has no control over. When I had first walked in the door, I saw a man in chef's whites talking to one of the tables in the bar. "Great!" I thought. It's always nice to see the chef get out of the kitchen to talk with guests about their dining experience. That was until I walked into the main dining room and saw many people wearing chef's whites. Apparently the server's dress code involves wearing chef's whites. Which begs the question, do the cooks wear server uniforms?

The second thing that struck me was the number of very small children in the restaurant. There were at least three. Having previewed the menu on-line prior to my arrival, I saw nothing that would make me think that this was a child-friendly environment. In fact it was distinctly adult, from the low lighting, to the notably kid-unfriendly menu, to the lack of any kind of high chairs or booster seats. If you decide to bring your picky tot for a meal at Bonefish Grill, make sure you pack their entire meal. Sadly, the little ones were doing what little ones do at that age, fidget, yell, and cry. As you'll see in a little bit, I did use my camera's flash in several of the photos. Ironically, the only people who might have been affected by this inconvenience were the parents of a very vocal two year old who were seated across from my table. In this particular case, I felt little remorse.

After seating me, my hostess left me with the regular menu to look over. The menu was actually one large page, and it was fairly dark, so I did the best I could and took five separate pictures, one of each section:






My server also left me the current specials menu to look over as well:


To be honest, I really didn't need to do much looking. In doing my research on the restaurant, I had consulted the Seafood Watch website to see which fish would be a possibility for dinner tonight. The first fish listed on the menu was Patagonian Toothfish, or as the marketing people would like you to call it, Chilean Sea Bass. From the moment I saw that name, I wondered how many varieties of seafood would be on the watch list. It turned out that almost all of them were, save the Rainbow Trout and the fish off the specials menu, Arctic Char. For those who haven't had Arctic Char before, it is kind of like a cross between salmon and trout. Fine, I had my entrée, but I had $25 to burn and the entrée was $17.90. I decided to start out with an appetizer, too.

When I went to order the Arctic Char, I was greeted with enthusiastic agreement from my server. I asked if the fish was cooked to order. She responded that normally the kitchen prepared it close to medium-well. When I asked for it medium-rare instead, she got this scrunched up look on her face and said, "Are you really sure?" I'm guessing by this reaction that she's had some bad reactions from customers who THOUGHT they wanted it medium-rare, but didn't really. After assuring her that I definitely wanted it medium-rare, she agreed and walked away.

Soon, she returned with bread and an olive oil pesto dip:


The loaf in the basket had been pre-sliced almost the entire way through. Here was a shot of the crumb of a single slice:


The bread was decent enough, but a more substantive crust would've made the bread better. In trying to tear off a single piece from the loaf, I only ended up mashing and tearing it in the wrong spots. It also tasted like it could've used a bit more salt as the flavor was a little flat.

However, once I paired it with the olive oil dip, all was better:


Many restaurants do olive oil with grated cheese or freshly cracked pepper. Bonefish Grill was the first I've ever seen to spoon a dollop of pesto into the middle of the bowl. My server described the ingredients in the pesto to me and while most of them were routine, the addition of red pepper flakes caught my attention. Sure enough, one dip into the pesto portion of the plate and I was rewarded with the capricious bite of heat.

I made sure to save some of my bread for my appetizer, Mussels Josephine:


Comprised of Prince Edward Island mussels, tomatoes, red onions, garlic, a fine chiffonnade of basil, and sitting in a mostly butter with a little bit of wine sauce, this was a LOT of food for an appetizer. I ate a little more than half, but you could easily split this between three or four people. The mussels were definitely tender and tasted great when dipped in the butter sauce (what wouldn't?), but there was the occasional broken mussel and the fragmented shell pieces to fish out:


While I didn't mind the size of the dice on the tomatoes, the red onions were too big and since they weren't cooked, added too strong of a flavor paired against the sweet mussels. Additionally, while there was some basil flavor, the finely chopped green threads were too far and few between to really be incorporated into each mouthful. Those quibbles aside, I really did enjoy the mussels.

When my entrée finally arrived, I took two photos, one with flash and one without. Each has its merits and faults. I included both so you could see the difference:



Every entrée came with a warm chickpea and andouille "salad" and your choice of an additional side. I chose the potatoes gratin.

First, let's talk about the Arctic Char:


The Arctic Char had been topped with a chorizo and herb-crumb mixture and then served with a citrus beurre blanc. When the plate was first put down in front of me, I was kind of curious where the beurre blanc was. There seemed to be a very fine layer of it coating the top of the fish, but no substantive pool on the plate. It turned out that the cedar plank used to grill the fish was slightly convex and it wasn't until I lifted the plank up off the plate that I discovered that the majority of the sauce had pooled underneath the plank on the plate.

I tried each component of the fish by itself. The fish was beautifully cooked. It was moist, tender and creamy in my mouth. The chorizo and herb-crumb mixture that topped the fillet was interesting in that it added a herbaceous and spicy element to the dish. The citrus beurre blanc definitely lived up to its name; however, I felt it had almost too much lemon flavor and interfered with the other elements. As for the cedar plank itself, I think its purpose lie more in the olfactory stimulation it causes rather than in the flavor. Especially given the fact that the fish was cooked skin-side down and the delicate morsels of flesh easily slid off the skin as I ate it.

Next up was the warm chickpea salad:


I don't know that I would call this a salad, per se. It was definitely hearty and flavorful and the texture and taste of the andouille came through quite well. In this case, the onions in the dish had been cooked and worked well to marry in to the other flavors. Honestly, this dish didn't blow me away, and I don't know that I would order it if I had been given the opportunity, but it wasn't bad either.

Finally, there were the potatoes gratin:


There are many different preparations for this dish, some on the creamier side, some on the cheesier, but drier side. Bonefish Grill's version more closely matched the latter. I thought I was able to pick up on the use of several kinds of cheese, because some bites had a stringy cheese quality to them and other bites had the smell and taste of a sharp cheese, like grated Parmesan or Romano. While the toasted breadcrumbs were only on the outside of the potato ball on my plate, they must have been seasoned breadcrumbs as several bites of just the interior potatoes and cheese kind of left my tastebuds feeling a little flat and under-salted. I've certainly had better versions, but just like with the chickpea salad, it wasn't bad.

When my server came by to check on me, my incessant question asking about ingredients and small comments on the food made her stop and ask me if I was a food critic. Not wanting to blow my cover so close to the end of the meal, I simply replied, "Isn't everybody a food critic?" She laughed and replied, "You got that right!"

My meal tonight with tax came to roughly $29. Utilizing my $25 gift card, my final check came to $4, with a 20%+ tip of $6, meant that the entire affair had cost me ten bucks. I suppose the big question would be, would I have paid full price? Yes, but with a caveat. You would've had to convince me to come through the front door in the first place. As a foodie, I am interested in what makes food unique and knowing that I can order the exact same meal at every other location across the United States, doesn't exactly float my boat. That being said, overall the food ranged from quite good such as the arctic char and the olive oil pesto dip, to mediocre, as evidenced by the chickpea salad and potatoes gratin.

For those who thrive on location uniformity and well-known flavors, I think Bonefish Grill might just be up your alley. For diners looking for something unique that helps to define the Cleveland food scene, while the food can be tasty, there is nothing here that would make me specifically want to travel to Cleveland just to try it out.