after dinner sneeze

t says:  g and I have hit up two dinner recently that left us a little … wanting …  I’m going to consolidate their stories here so we can minimize the number of negative posts …

Brick American Eatery.  It’s no wonder there seems to be a “deal” like a Groupon going on here every time we turn around … the food is a miss!  I don’t want to harp on every dish we got (actually, dz’s dinner, the Asian noodles and the Fish-n-Chips, looked pretty darned tasty! … nevermind they were the least “American” items on the menu), so I’ll pick the worst of the ones we had (i.e. out of 4 appetizers and 3 mains).  It was mine.  Check it:

the food was so bad that the picture didn’t even warrant a proper Snapdish quick-fix.

The sprouts: pale, no char, no texture.  The steak: pale, minimal Maillard, no flavor.  The jus: insipid, no salt, no pepper.  People!  It’s a steak!  It’s a steak and Brussels sprouts!  It was popular in 2009!  If the $25 all-you-can-eat steak is better than yours,  you should just take steak off the menu so you can stop breaking the hearts of customers.  No matter how good dz’s entrees looked, nothing can save a restaurant from a bad steak … the mediocre salmon and stale duck nachos didn’t help either.  Consequently, I have no choice but to withhold adsz’s stamp of approval (actually … it makes me wish we had a stamp of dismissal … can I do that?).  Fortunately, the company was good, and the glass of wine was deep …

Jamonera.  So, going in, I imagined that Jamonera would have been like Amada with the feel of Barbuzzo …  Man-o-man was I disappointed.  And it wasn’t just me!  It was g and kp, too!  (And kp is perhaps the second-nicest-guy-in-the-world!)  The dish the best encapsulates our frustration:

Papa Frita Snoozefest!

So … the papa frita …  It’s normally a deliciously fried seasoned potato.  And the one thing jamonera did superbly was frying it – I have never had so wonderfully-a-crisped potato.  But they were missing one very important aspect of the dish … flavor.  What was that weak aioli they had going on?  Where’s the seasoning?  Where’s the oomph?  I wanted it to hit my mouth and make me go “wow”, and then follow it up with a warm, soothing hug of fried-potato-comfort … and this did neither (I don’t find that quantity of aioli comforting … clog-inducing, yes, comforting, no).  The other items we sampled that night were similarly lacking in flavor.  Their albondigas made me wish I was at Barbuzzo.  Their charcuterie made me wish I was at Amada or GTC.  The were definitely not winning any adsz awards that night!  Oh well – I guess even the mighty Val and Marcie can disappoint once in a while!  I suspect that Jamongera may go the way of the Bindi.  It’s ok – there’s always Lolita and Barbuzzo …