Great Atmosphere, High Prices and a Failure at Fusion Food
- May 31, 2009
- Rated 1 of 5 by
ShannonBrooke from Somerville, Massachusetts
"Bespoke/Sabor (now combined) is the epitome of trying too hard. It does seem like a lovely place for drinks, particularly in the summertime. The service, contrary to other reviews, was excellent. Although we were not dressed to impress, we were quickly seated, and the servers were really so friendly and helpful. It is in fact a beautiful location - as beautiful as I remember Roomba being. Overall, I was optimistic that we were going to have a great meal.
We were feeling quite happy with our mojitos, and our appetizers started out OK. The duck confit eggroll was delicious, a perfect combination of tastes, and the mozzarella/heirloom tomato had an excellent mozzarella if an under-ripe tomato.
Then our main dishes came. The special monkfish, which I was told was "flying out of the kitchen" in the empty restaurant, was obviously something they were trying to get rid of. There was a distinct "fishy" smell when it was brought to our table. Luckily the monkfish was overcooked so it's doubtful we'll get sick. It was served on a mushy crabcake, and the serrano-wrapped monkfish was a poor flavor combination. I actually separated the two. The asparagus was OK.
My friend had the duck. We all tried a bite - it was a bit tinny. duck is a hard dish to cook - they failed. The mashed plaintains however were good.
Her husband had the tuna. It did not say it was deep-fried - what a strange choice. The interior was raw, which is good - but the funny part was the "cold" part of the tuna, was the fried section! It had obviously been cooked earlier and was sitting around. He didn't like any part of his meal and it was sad because he hadn't had the appetizers with us. So his whole meal was a disappointment.
Most dishes suffered from too much complexity without the right flavor combinations, too much time spent on presentation, not enough on the food itself, or poor quality ingredients. It is trying to hard to be haute cuisine, but the best chefs know that ingredients count, simpler is better, and your food must exceed your presentation. I wish they stuck to Nuevo Latino as in Roomba. I remember Roomba had great food. They have failed with their attempt to go fusion.
It is also more expensive than Roomba was, and we paid the bill, thinking there was no way we could let our friends help pay for such a bad meal. I felt so guilty for selecting this place for a nice dinner out. The food was so bad that almost nothing else mattered. It was a downer.
Another note - they have the strangest chairs in the upstairs dining room. the chairs throw you backwards into an inclined seating position, making it hard to get close to the table and making your knees hit the table itself. It was as if form was chosen over function, once again."
From journal New Haven - Not so bad really