Chart House Chaps My Ass

Okay I'll say it up front. The Chart House is overrated and overpriced. $70 per person plus gratuity and I was not blown away. If I'm spending that kind of bread, I better be blown away.

First of all, if you're a seafood specialty house, don't tell me you serve fresh Chilean Sea Bass. There is NO such thing unless you're in Chile. Second, fish shouldn't be bathed in sauces or layered in "crusts." Light versions of either are fine.

A brief history lesson will explain this. Years ago, heavy sauces were used to disguise the flavor of spoiling meats and fish. Ever heard of Meuniere? Loosely translated it means "miller's wife." The miller's wife had a ready supply of flour and of course the mill was generally located on the waterway so she also had a convenient place to catch fresh fish. The "a la meuniere" preparation is simple because there is no need to mask any off flavors. Dredge your fish in flour or seasoned flour, cook it in a pan with some lightly browned butter, add some fresh parsley and lemon and voila.

Okay, back to the Chart House. There appeared to be no simple fish preparations at CH. Furthermore, the menu was terribly uninspired. They are trying but they aren't there.

Table service is remarkably well done. At least our server seemed to have his act together. Though they need to work on their "team concept." I overheard the server explaining to an adjacent table that they had a new manager and he wanted to "enhance the dining experience" so they implemented team concept of service. That means no trays for plates. All food is brought to your table by hand. That's fine. But they need to work on it. There were a few awkward moments when diners at our table received the wrong plate.

We waited an inordinate amount of time for our entrees. When they arrived, the servers were using napkins to hold the burning hot plates. Why do restaurants do this? I'm not sure. Entrees were okay. Not good, not great. Just okay. One filet mignon was ordered rare to med-rare and was medium to medium-well. It was mentioned to the server. No adjustment. My feeling on this, and I'm not one who trolls for comped food, is that the meal should have been removed from the check. The reason she decided to eat it was she didn't want to sit there and wait while everybody else had their dinners and then everybody waits for her to finish. That's not a pleasurable dining experience.

I will not return.

This review is for The Chart House in Daytona Beach. Other locations may be different. But I still won't go to any other locations either.

Long Doggers Does Dogs Right

This is the former Long Doggers that is now Parrot Island Grill. It appears that one of the partners bought out the other partners or something like that. It was my first experience here but was told by my two eating partners that it was exactly the same as it was before.

Okay, I gotta let you in on this one. We sit down at this beachy looking joint. It's definetly not on the beach but you get that feeling. We each order a beer so the server/beer girl suggests a pitcher. Okay. She begins to pour the pitcher. Gets to about 3/4 full and the keg blows. She says "we have to change the keg." She then takes the almost full pitcher of beer and puts it over by where the guys are cooking. A few minutes go by and we're sitting there really wanting a cold beer. She had already placed the frosty glasses in front of us. Not being one to be shy, I say, "hey we'll get started on that one while you guys change the keg." She looks at us oddly and says, "well if you want to drink out of the bottom of the keg, it may not be any good." It's all I can do to keep my mouth shut and not laugh out loud in the girls face. Instead of explaining to her that there is a tube that goes from the tap to the bottom of the keg that's called the pickup and all the beer comes from the bottom of the keg, I just said, "we'll take our chances as long as it's cold." We get our cold pitcher. Ahhhhh.

So this place is more or less a specialty hot dog joint with an expanded menu of beachy favorites. We all chose the dogs with equally pleasing results.

Despite the ditzyness of our server with regards to the draft beer, her effort was adequate. Nothing spectacular. I tried to explain to her the old time bar tradition of "the spider" where if you get the last pour out of the bottle it's complimentary. She couldn't care less!!

NOTE: There are still Long Doggers in Melbourne and other places. The "Parrot Cay Island Grille" appears to be the only location that has changed monikers.

Parrot Cay Island Grille
2452 S. Nova Road
Daytona Beach, FL