We were starving and ready for breakfast or brunch on a Saturday late AM. We don't have a lot of money, but splurge on occasion. We walked all around the Plaza reading menus etc. The menu looked fine. The service seemed fine. They asked if we'd like to sit out on the back terrace, it was a nice day, so we said yes. The waiter came immediately, maybe a little too soon, helping us through the menu, almost before we'd looked at it much at our table. We saw the starter of Clams and mussels in a garlic wine sauce w/ linguisa (We've been on a mussels kick, and have had lots of recent examples of excellent mussles in other restaurants). We ordered this, and being as we were starting w/ seafood we decided to have also the smoked salmon benedicts (we both got the same thing), and a glass of Robleto Sauv. blanc.
When our Clams / mussels dish arrived it looked scant for $11.25 (recently had much larger portions in other fine restaurants for a third less the price) but we hope it tasted good. It smelled good. The sauce was nice and spicy and flavorful, the clams were good, but the mussels were old tasting. They had that old fishy taste that you get w/ day old or old off season mussels. I couldn't eat them. I tried to tell the waiter, and he told me, that's how they're suppposed to be. No thanks.
Then our eggs benedict came. I could see before taking a bite that the hollendaise sauce looked very scant, so I immediately asked for a little more sauce. Now I cut my fork in and the egg was OVER COOKED, almost hard boiled, far from being poached (was it poached in a microwave?) I felt embarrased to tell them more bad news, and really wanted to have a positive experience, so I thought Ill try it this way, I can eat my eggs a little overdone. My husband's were the same. He didn't mind enough to complain either. But as we began to eat the dish, the smoked salmon tasted old. NOT fresh. Now, I have had good smoked salmon, and it should not have that overly fishy bitter taste (only the cheaper quality stuff has) It also was getting dark around the edges. We could not eat it after a few bites. They did sub salad for the potatoes, which was fine - the green salad tasted fine, but VERY tiny amount. After we first compained about the mussels, the waiter kind of disapeared. We told another wait person who asked if everything was ok that the salmon tasted old, she sounded like she was going to get the manager or something. (by the way we also had to ask for napkins, and salt and pepper.) Soon we see a different more well dressed man coming out to serve food, he looked like he could be the manager. Then from the table behind us I hear a guy telling him ' I''m sorry to have to return this again, but the eggs are just way over cooked"" I looked back and see someone w/ another eggs benedict type dish. The manager looking guy says, ""wow, I'm sorry, I'll cook it myself if I have to this time."" As he passes our table he askes if everything is ok. I showed him my uneated salmon and told him it was old tasting, plus our eggs also had been overdone, and that the mussels also tasted bad. He says ""hmm, let me see about that ."" He never came back, just the waiter shows up with the bill and nothing else. We shouldn't have paid, but the ethical honest people that we are, we paid the whole bill of $50 something including the tax. Tip should've been $10, but we left $5 w/ a note saying ""small tip for bad food quality, not service"" even though service was so so any way.
Pros: nice location, outdoor back terrace dining option
Cons: overpriced , overcooked, and not fresh seafood
more