Review of 604 at West Village, Durham

It has been a long time since I have been so thoroughly impressed with a restaurant, that I walked away thinking of a time when I can take my family there.  But top-to-bottom, 604 at West was spectacular.  The mood of the evening is set the moment you walk in and see the massively tall brick walls with thick, old wooden supports.  Immediately we were impressed, but Megan and I are suckers for old buildings with exposed brick, renovated for a modern purpose.  This is easily one of the most visually stunning restaurants in the area and it is a perfect date location.  Our waitress was super friendly and personable with an excellent knowledge of the menu.  In fact, when prompted she told us not only her favorite appetizers and dishes, but also the most popular dishes.

            For our appetizers, I ordered the Carpaccio, while Megan had the Goat Cheese Polenta.  The Carpaccio, which is raw beef, was sliced so razor thin that you could practically see through it.  The beef was peppercorn encrusted, which added a spicy roughness to the otherwise delicate dish.  The carpaccio was then placed on the edges of the plate, with a salad of Arugula and capers doused with truffle oil and then piled in the center of the plate.  Lastly, the salad was topped with multiple small slices of Grana Padano cheese, so as to not overpower any other element of this fantastic dish.  Grana Padano is very similar to a Parmigiana-Reggiano but is subtler and less nutty due to the use of skimmed milk instead of whole. Sorry about the picture, I didn't realize it was blurry until I had devoured my appetizer. 

            Megan had the Farm Goat Cheese Polenta appetizer.  While mine was great, her dish was world-class.  Imagine a polenta cake, lightly seared for a slight crispness, mixed with the creaminess of polenta and the mild tanginess of fresh, local goat cheese.  The combination in and of itself is amazing, but that is just the start of this dish.  Around the polenta cake was a perfectly thickened, wild mushroom ragout.  In my opinion, this was the star of the dish.  The plethora of mushrooms in the sauce was amazing.  When you combine all element of the dish into one bite, it is an immediate mouthgasm. I kept stealing some from Megan anytime she looked away.  This dish was amazing.  I guarantee that I will be ordering this again.  On a side note, while we do not eat them, almost every other table ordered the Prince Edward Island mussels, and gave them rave reviews.

            For my main course, I ordered the Lobster Cognac Sauce.  This dish was phenomenal! Still to this day, over a month later, I am having flashbacks to savoring this wonderful, wonderful dish.  While the appetizers were amazing, this was even better and shows off the skill and talent of Chef Robert Sumber.  I'll do my best to paint you a picture of this.  At the center of the dish is a pile of squid ink pasta.  I've heard about the slightly briny goodness of squid ink pasta, but until 604 West, I had never experienced it.  Instantly, I fell in love.  Squid ink pasta is amazing, or at least Chef Sumber's was.  Surrounding the pasta were heaping amounts of shrimp, crabmeat, and about four huge seared scallops that were quartered.  Since I am not a mussel fan, I ordered my dish without them.  All of this wonderful seafood was then bathed in a rich, lobster-infused Cognac cream sauce.  The cream is a perfect balance to the spiciness of cognac.  I can't rave enough about my dinner here at 604.  It was world-class.

            Megan ordered one of the fish specials of the day, the red snapper.  Perfectly grilled snapper was on top of a tower of food.  The tower’s base was asparagus.  It was then topped with a light lemon risotto.  The snapper was the top of the tower.  This dish was great, but as it was a special that is unavailable most days, I don’t plan on describing it in greater detail.  Besides, my main dish was superior. 

            Our dinner at 604 at West Village was a phenomenal meal.  We would gladly eat there any day of the week.  No question, this is one of the best restaurants in the area.  Whether it is for a date, a birthday, or an engagement, this is the place to set the mood and give you an exceptional meal.  If anything is going to give you pause, let it be this.  Since we were at 604, their executive chef went from Chef Sumber to Chef Scott Martin.  Also, the Goat Cheese Polenta and Lobster Cognac sauce that I raved about are not on the current menu.  While I know nothing about the skill of Chef Martin, heck, he could be a better chef, the loss of my two favorite menu items means our next visit will be like a trip to an entirely new restaurant.  Let’s hope it is still so amazing. 

Category	Scale 1-5 stars
Food Quality
Food Creativity
Service
Atmosphere
Value for the Price

Review of Circa 1922, Wilmington

            Rarely is there a restaurant where our experience was so bad that it makes me feel as though my time and money were wasted.  Circa 1922 in Wilmington is one of these restaurants, and I’d encourage everyone to avoid it.  Our best opinion is that they were overly pretentious for the sake of being pretentious. Given their reputation, I expected a great meal, but from the poorly sized, overcooked food, to the rude service, to the snooty hostess, we won’t even return here for a free meal. 

            We walked in at about five minutes after five and the hostess gave us a glance up and down that made us feel very unwelcome. Then, she asked, “Can I help you?”  Well, it is a restaurant at dinnertime, so we mention that we’d like to dine.  Then, we asked if we could sit in the bar area (as they had tapas specials at the bar).  Her response was “I guess” and led us to our table.  I’m sorry if we offended her by our desire to eat at her restaurant. 

            Once seated, we were met by our middle-aged British waiter, who was could possibly be the rudest man in the food service industry.  I’ll explain why, later in the article.  When he asked for our drink order we both said sweet tea.  His response was that “we don’t HAVE (emphasis on a drawn out have) sweet tea, but I can get you unsweetened and some sweetener.”  Nice enough, but it is rare to see a restaurant in the south that doesn’t make sweet tea.  In fact, as Megan pointed out later, all three restaurants that we have been to that did not have sweet tea, were a let-down.  Perhaps that should be our new standard, no sweet tea, we leave.  It would have saved us this experience. 

            What kind of place is this?  Looking at the menu, it seems very unfocused.  I mean, they have sushi, tapas, bar items, pastas, meats, seafood; it is like this restaurant is in the midst of an identity crisis and is going to try many foods of many origins, until they figure out their future.  Once we got a look at the tapas menu, we decided against it, instead favoring the half-price sushi menu.  We ordered the Trio of Tuna and the Lobster Roll.  The Trio of Tuna consists of 3 bites of spicy tuna roll, 3 miso-seared sashimi covered in black and white sesame seeds, and 3 pieces of tuna tartare with light crackers.  The spicy tuna roll was missing the spicy.  No sriracha or spicy mayo anywhere on this.  The seared sashimi was very fresh, but we couldn’t taste any miso.  The tartare was realistically just thin slices of sashimi, not the normal chopped tartare found elsewhere.  When Megan, the tuna lover of our couple said that the best part was the thin crackers, that isn’t a good sign.  The lobster roll was lobster with julienne mango and cucumber, then the whole roll was tempura fried.  While there were seven pieces, notice that each one is roughly half an inch thick, whereas normal sushi is almost double the width.  Then notice that the lobster and mango get smaller in amount as the roll goes on, with the end piece having no mango at all and just a hint of lobster.  Also, aside from the sweet chili sauce dip that accompanied it, there was no flavor to this sushi roll at all.  We were very glad that this was half price sushi night, because if we had to pay the full price for the amount of sushi that we received, we would have been irate. 

            For dinner, Megan couldn’t decide between the Lobster Ravioli and the Filet.  So she did what she normally does, ask the waiter for his preference.  Instead of offering a suggestion or describing the dish in better detail to help her decided, he just kept asking, “what have you eaten most recently” and saying that these are “two very different dishes.”  Wait, lobster in pasta and beef filet are different?  Really?  Come on, throughout the whole meal, he treated us like serfs, unworthy to dine at the king’s table.  When Megan even asked him what his preference of the two was, he just said that she would “have to make the decision on her own.”  Thanks a lot for your guidance.  She went with the Filet.  It was served in a tower with a rosemary polenta cake on bottom, wilted spinach in the next level, balsamic glazed mushrooms in the next, then the filet, and topped with thinly sliced onion vines.  Starting from bottom, the polenta cake was not the creamy polenta you would hope for, instead it was rather dry and the rosemary was subtle to the point of indistinguishable. The reduction sauce dressing the meat completely overpowered the polenta.  The mushrooms consisted of two slices of mushroom; believe me, we had to search for them.  Then, the medium-rare steak that Megan ordered came out without any pink whatsoever in it, meaning it was well-done.  As we normally do not send food back, Megan asked the waiter for a steak knife to cut the obviously overdone filet.  Our favorite Brit’s response was “you shouldn’t need a steak knife to cut a filet” and then he continued to the next table to pour their drinks.  Afterward, seeing Megan fuming at being insulted he walked by and said “I’ll get you one anyway though.”  Are you kidding me!?!  Yes, a filet should be tender enough to cut without a steak knife, but this one was drastically overcooked, and regardless, who is he to tell a customer that they can’t have a readily available knife. 

            I ordered the Crabmeat Cheesecake.  It comes in a bowl with a Pecorina (similar to a romano or parmesan) crust encasing the fresh blue crab and roasted garlic.  Outside of the “cheesecake” was a Champagne and brie cream sauce with a few green onions tossed in for color.  Now, when I, or probably anyone, hear cheesecake, I expect a creamy, decadent concoction served in a large slice.  This was nothing like that.  It was more of a tartlet-sized crust that was severely over baked to the point of dryness and topped with wilted sprouts and shaved cheese, probably more Pecorina.  Inside was only crab, no creamy cheese and anything remotely resembling a cake-like quality.  The cream sauce that my tart was swimming in was very bland, and I doubt even the most discerning of palates could have found a hint of champagne in it.  Honestly, I thought it was just a basic béchamel sauce of cream and flour.  It added nothing to this dish.  My biggest problem with it was the size.  It would have been great as an appetizer, not a full entrée.  Oh and it does not come with any side or anything else to help fill your starving stomach. 

            We couldn’t believe how ostentatious this place was.  They give off the reputation of fine dining, but they don’t come close to living up to the hype.   The service was rude, the food was of poor quality, and aside from the appealing décor, there was nothing redeeming about this restaurant.  Without question, it was the worst fine-dining experience we have ever had.  I really have to take pause and think before I try one of the other 5 restaurants in this dining group.  Yes, it is possible that they just had one really bad day of operation, but based on some of the other comments that are posted about Circa 1922, I doubt it.  Sure, you can eat there and make your own opinion, but if you read this far into my post, you were warned. 

Category	Scale 1-5 stars
Food Quality
Food Creativity
Service
Atmosphere
Value for the Price

Review of Rockwell's American Grill, Cary

    Dean Ogan, the owner of Rocky Top Hospitality, has a hit.  After closing our two favorite restaurants in Raleigh, Bogart's and Red Room, and opening upscale burger joints, Draft and Tribeca Tavern, our faith in Ogan was dwindling, but Rockwell's has American classic written all over it.  That is, as long as it keeps up the high quality people associate with Rocky Top.  I must say that I am excited about the idea of family-style dining, which Rockwell's offers.  This is something that you don’t see done very often, but it can be a welcome experience.  

    Megan ordered one of their gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches.  She got the Local Brie with thick cut bacon and house made Granny Smith apple chutney, all on honey wheat bread.  The grilled cheese was good.  The bacon overpowered the subtle Brie, but overall, it was a good sandwich.  For a side, Megan ordered the Smoked Gouda Mac n' Cheese.  It was creamy and delicious, plus a Smoked Gouda is one of her favorite cheeses.  While it wasn't the best side dish on the menu, you can't go wrong by ordering it and I guarantee she’ll have it at least one more time.

    Rockwell's offered me my first opportunity at a Deep-South classic, Chicken and Waffles.  I'll definitely be back for this dish.  The chicken was a thick, full breast of chicken, hand breaded, then fried to a deep golden brown.  The waffle was fresh-made too.  It was similar to a Belgian waffle, but thicker, and able to handle and pair with the chicken. The chicken & waffles comes with a small bowl of the chef’s daily marmalade; today’s was strawberry, which was sweet, but unimpressive aside from the fact that it was made in-house.  To top it all off, they advertise Kenny’s Honey.  It is a locally made, bee-farm-fresh honey created about five miles from Rockwell’s.  The honey was simply amazing!  I use honey often, but I guess I have never had fresh honey before.  I literally would have drunk a glass of it.  The dish was incredible, and to top off the hot chicken with a piece of waffle drizzled with honey was magic in my mouth.  I can’t wait to take friends here to try this. 

            For my side, I hit gold with the Potato Dumplings & Slab Bacon.  Our waiter described these as “French fry pillows”, which was a fairly accurate description of the side.  I would explain these as slightly fried gnocchi, just twice the length.  Then, it is mixed with diced slab bacon, small slices of asparagus, and an abundance of blue cheese.  While, we were both hesitant about this side, it was fantastic.  The cheese was slightly melted on the hot dumplings.  The salty crunch of the bacon and the tartness of the asparagus perfectly complement everything.  We devoured this side!  It is unlike anything else that you might find at a restaurant and it was fabulously delicious. 

            Rockwell’s American Grill provided us with a fantastic lunch.  The waiter was knowledgeable about all of the dishes, and the manager took the time to visit with us and explain the honey, their desserts, etc.  We couldn’t have asked for a more pleasant time or a better lunch than we got at Rockwell’s. 

Addendum: We went back two weeks later with one of our favorite couples, after raving to them about Rockwell’s.  Wow, had things changed for the worse.  The rapidness of the decline is shocking.  We sat for twenty minutes and still no waitress, we had to go back to the hostess to ask for one.  Then, she had no knowledge of the food.  Our friends asked what two of the dishes were like, and instead of knowing or even finding out, she just said that she didn’t know…end of discussion.   First off, the menu had changed, less than 2 months into opening.  Prices had leveled off, many decreased, and only the grilled cheese combo increased, some selections had changed, and Kenny’s honey, which we obsessed about, was removed from the menu (it is still there, on every table, but it is not advertised).  Megan still got the Chicken & Waffles, but the marmalade was super tart and the chicken was no longer the fresh, thick breast; it was two chicken fingers that you could find in any frozen section of a grocery store.  My pastrami sandwich had very little mustard or cheese on it, the pastrami itself was great, but I needed more on it.  We never got refills on our drinks, and both of our friends’ sandwiches were sloppily made.  All in all, for Rockwell’s to have deteriorated that fast is astounding.  We had high hopes, but I am definitely worried about it.  We'll give it one more try to figure out which day's visit was more accurate.  

Category	Scale 1-5 stars
Food Quality
Food Creativity
Service
Atmosphere
Value for the Price