chewingfat

I’ve been traveling to Boston quite a bit recently. Aside from working with a great client I’ve had the pleasure to experience some really fine dining including Davios on Arlington St.

It’s touted as a Northern Italian Steakhouse, so I felt compelled to order a steak. However, while perusing the menu for appetizer options the waiter made us aware of a menu section called “Davio’s Classici”. It’s a mixture of appetizers and entrees that the restaurant holds in high regards for various reasons. Items like sautéed calamari with anchovies, shallots, garlic and hot peppers in a white wine cream sauce or grilled porterhouse veal chop with creamy potatoes and vintage port populate this section. While these sounded great I was really craving some pasta, enter the tagliatelle bolognese.

I’m a sucker for a good meat sauce – it stems from my childhood. My mom has some italian background and could cook meat sauces like no one else. Beef, chicken, lamb – you name it, she had a killer recipe for it. So when I saw the meat that made up this sauce included braised veal, beef AND pork I had to order it. Davio’s was kind enough to offer me this an appetizer.

It was totally unbelievable. The sauce was a perfect marriage of tangy tomatoes and gamey meats. Considering the fat content the sauce wasn’t “greasy” at all. The pasta was fresh and perfectly cooked. This was truly one of the best pasta dishes I have ever ordered – Don’t worry mom, nothing comes close to your lamb sauce.

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I haven’t posted in awhile as I’ve been away on holidays. I have a ton of posting to catch up on. Here’s the first…

While we were away we ate the Salt Rock Grill. My wife and I have eaten there for the past three years. While the decor is nice and the decent seats offer beautiful views of the Intercoastal waterway, it’s the food that brings us back.

The formula for the food at the Salt Rock is simple.

1. The freshest of everything – They have their own dayboat for multiple “catches of the day”.

1. A wood-burning grill – Most items are cooked over natural oak and citrus wood.

   On this visit I started with the tuna sashimi ($10.95). It came coated with sesame seeds, lightly seared, sliced ¼” thick with small dollops of wasabi and served with sake soy. This was absolutely perfect and I fully intend on knocking this one off. For the main I had a top sirloin steak and a king crab leg ($28.95), both grilled over the woodfire. They had a natural smokey taste that made this anything but the a typical surf and turf.

   Kudos to the kitchen staff, but even they can’t make up for the terrible service offered by our waiter, David W (as written on the bill).

   The service at the Salt Rock is always sub-par and seems to get worse every year. This year our experience began to decline when our waiter took our order and left before we had a chance to tell him what we wanted as appetizers. After that was sorted out we ordered some wines by the glass. We needed to inquire about these twice. When the main course came my wife had no knife as it was cleared away when the apps were done. We asked him three times about this. On the third request he acknowledged with a nod and his usual blank grin then proceeded to go to the bar and get our drink order, completely ignoring the request for cutlery. I was dumbfounded. The rest of the meal we were left to deliberate about what to do about the tip. I had never left a $0 tip before. If the tip is the customer’s mechanism to review the service, I needed a way to make sure he knew it was unacceptable. If I left $0 he may have perceived that I thought gratuities were included. If I left too much, but not as much as 15%, I would be perceived as cheap. I opted on leaving $7, just over 4%. Which, as I write this, seems like a gross overpayment. I would have liked to have left $0.01, but I didn’t have the nerve.

   Great food can’t make up for bad service.

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