Dining Companion: Angie R.
First, they were out of their Sunday night special, Cassoulet. That's the whole reason I picked the place. I should have known then.
My second choice was the roasted lobster. Out of that. And the grilled fish of the day. That was gone too.
So, I went with my third choice, the braised short ribs. Angie ordered a salad nicoise and we ordered a goat cheese patatou as a starter to share. Patatou is olives and potatoes cooked and then baked with the goat cheese on top.
About twenty minutes later we were visited by our waitress who said, "the gas is out." Apparently all hot food was on hold for twenty minutes. I decided to cancel the patatou since it was cooked and we ordered scallop ceviche instead to tide us over until the hot food came. Apparently ceviche is individually served. By that I mean that we didn't get a dish of ceviche, but we were supposed to each get an individual scallop in the shell. Why did I say "supposed to"? Because suddenly a manager appeared with a plate of shrimp and seafood salad. They were out of scallops. The shrimp/seafood salad was pretty good but one of the shrimp had not been properly deveined.
By this time, I was getting pretty hungry. Too bad no one brought us bread until we asked. Once we got it, the bread was okay. The butter was not great.
Angie had ordered a diet coke so I ordered a coke with grenadine. Nope. No coke. Pepsi. Diet coke, and Pepsi. Oooohhkay. It finally came, after I had to remind the waitress. Without grenadine. So instead of taking it back and getting it right she brought me a shot glass of grenadine.
Well more than twenty minutes elapsed. No hot food. We received an apology and a hint that we should start ordering some more cold food. We ventured into a broccolini/eggplant/pepper/ratatouille type dish and the mixed olives. The olives ($6) were a mix of three types of olives with pearl onions, capers, cornichons, and spices and were pretty good. The dish was cracked in multiple places which I find odd considering the restaurant has only been open three months. The vegetable plate was a mixed bag. Angie liked them all except the peppers. I thought the peppers were okay once you added a bit of salt. The eggplant was tasty and the ratatouille was pretty good. I didn't like the broccolini (it was a bit too spicy) but Angie really liked it.
Then we waited....no hot food. Of course no one came to tell us, we had to stop the waitress again to ask. So, we acquiesced and got a steak tartare (for me only, Angie is a vegetarian) and a cheese plate. The steak tartare was eh. It was more of a ground beef than chopped beef and it was too spicy. The only way I could eat it was when I combined it with some cheese from the cheese plate. The salad on the side was underdressed. The cheese plate was sloppily thrown together but the three cheese were good. I thought the accompaniments were a bit odd- dates, walnuts, raisin bread, and a dried pineapple ring.
Thankfully the manager did the right thing and comped the whole meal.
The restaurant is supposed to be French brasserie with Mediterranean, Spanish, and Italian influences. The decor is half brasserie and half upscale Martha's Vineyard boathouse chic. Very odd. It was too fancy for the brasserie tea towel style napkins but yet not fancy enough to seat us at a booth without a stained banquette. The periwinkle blue banquette cloth seat had a huge brown stain on it. Also, some people were seated in wicker. I find wicker an odd choice because it tends to be very uncomfortable and can crack and break easily.
The most bothersome thing was that the menu notes that a 15% gratuity will be added to each receipt. For any size party. Frankly, that's insulting, and it explains why the service was so slow. What incentive do they have to excel?
Valet for $7 but there is also a metro stop right there.
Delphine is very convenient if you have theater tickets for The Pantages across the street but frankly, I wouldn't even bother. There are plenty of other fish restaurants in the sea.
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