It has a polished, modern, dimly lit feel like a Cactus Club. Except it's not Cactus Club because the dress code for the waitresses isn't as strictly homogenous and they haven't rigorously hired only under-25 9's and 10's. There's a casual and more open-feeling bar downstairs and the main dining room upstairs. Something that felt off -- and I don't often notice enough to comment on this -- is how the entrances are positioned in comparison to the interior. Huh? Okay, let me try to explain:First, the "bar" area downstairs. The doors look pretty much straight ahead into the bar area and some of the dining space. It's not so bad with the bar and a lot of places will actually have that, but I felt it'd be nicer if there were something to shield you from the direct sight-line.
As for the upstairs area, the reception desk felt like it was too directly up the stairs. So all the way up (or down) you're watching the hostesses or they're watching you and in between there's an awkward silence.
Anyway, maybe it was because I was there quite early and the place wasn't so busy that I noticed these things.
Seats are comfortable, spacing is generous for groups -- no trying to sardine your birthday party. Bellinis come with a funny plastic animal. Which is fun, I guess, but just seems like a waste of plastic. (Surely they don't wash 'em and re-use them.) Not many veggie options and even fewer gluten-free options.
Miami Ice ($4) Fresh muddled mint, mango puree, iced tea
- Nice to see at least a small section of non-alcoholic drinks. Usually you have to ask the server and if you don't want water you get some kind of juice-from-a-bottle.
- Not too minty but otherwise a pretty decent drink.
- $17.50 on the online menu but $18 on my bill.
- It didn't look like such a big mound of food, but it was definitely filling. If you want dessert at all, maybe share this.
- Ravioli was humungous, each almost as big as a business card. Filling was flattish, but that's not unexpected.
- Tomato sauce was way too salty and it flattened every other flavour. Spicy glazed pecans? Yup, they were there, but can't taste 'em cause of the sauce!
- I recommend scraping off most of the sauce and having just the ravioli on it own, or maybe with a tiny bit of the powerful sauce.
- Comes with a token slice of toasted baguette (brushed with olive oil?) that you can use on some of the sauce. But really, just let the rest go to limit your daily sodium intake.
- Once I scraped off the sauce, this was a mediocre item. Best part of this is the quantity you get, although for $18 you'd better be getting a good quantity.
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