Bonefish Grill Restaurant Review
Franchise restaurants – I’m not a fan!
I would rather starve than eat chain foodery!
Either the food is rubber, long past its heat retention prime, or it’s covered in quick dip/quick mix/full of MSG preservative laden sauces or as in so many cases, the meats are no longer real meat carved off real carcasses. I avoid these types of restaurants and raise cross boned X-fingers to whoever may suggest this type of food for an evening out to dinner.
However…..we’ve found an exception!
This past spring, we watched a new local restaurant being built and then watched the business startup. Month after month, night after night this eatery filled with diners and waiting lines. Eight months of solid traffic is a hot run for a new restaurant, especially in a town that has no shortage of places to eat. Our interest was piqued!! DH suggested we give it try. I checked out their online menu….it actually looked good! So, off to dinner at Bonefish Grill we went……
Bonefish is a chain/franchise type of restaurant, the brainchild of Tim Curci and Chris Parker, who opened their first Bonefish in St. Petersburg, Florida, January 2000. Since that time they have expanded across the country into twenty-eight states.
True to their word this restaurant offers “dishes created from the freshest ingredients available and cooked over a wood-burning grill”. This was my experience……
I started with an Espresso Martini – a libation full of “endorphin rave” ingredients. Svedka Vanilla Vodka, Kahlua, crème de cacao, and espresso. Served with a chocolate sugared rim. I have no problem with beginning a dinner with dessert. There are world cuisines where beginning the meal with a sweet is the accepted de rigueur! I’m all over this – lol!
Next up was the Bonefish Grill House Salad with a citrus herb vinaigrette dressing – the freshest spring greens with the tang of large meaty Kalamata olives and flavorful fresh tomato chunks. Perfection!!
Then the wine arrived, Cuvee Sauvage Chardonnay (Napa Valley – Franciscan Estate) a luxurious velvety, white wine of apple and pear interwoven with the flavors of crème brûlée, honey, toasty oak, and vanilla. It was a wonderfully balanced pairing with my entree.
Fresh Chilean Sea Bass – grilled. The bass was golden brown, cooked over a wood fire until the bubbling juices had just risen to the surface of the fish. The bass was moist, flaky, rich with the quintessential buttery flavor that defines sea bass. A small side dish of Pan Asian Sauce accompanied the fish with a delicate mix of brown rice/wild rice plated alongside the fish. The rice was also excellent – light, fluffed with none of that nasty swamp muck flavor that can be experienced with poorly chosen wild rice.
The wait staff was attentive, observant, unobtrusive and skilled enough to handle the full house. We will not hesitate to go back to try more of the Bone Fish Grill menu! We give this restaurant, that performs in a manner more like a fine dining establishment, rather than a typical food franchise – a solid four stars!
Bone Fish Grill offers a rounded menu inclusive of fresh fish, chicken, steaks, seafood, has a well-stocked bar and above average wine selections.
Prices are mid-range $$ – $$$
Casual dress
They also share a few of their recipes on their website.
Recipe: Bonefish Grill’s Pan Asian Sauce
Summary: A taste of the far East.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup minced ginger
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1 cup ketchup
- 1 cup oyster sauce
- 3 tbsp. lemon juice
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3 tbsp. coarsely chopped cilantro
Instructions
- In a medium sauce pan, sauté the minced ginger in the olive oil until fragrant.
- In a bowl, thoroughly combine the soy sauce, ketchup, oyster sauce, lemon juice and water and add to sauté pan.
- Bring the mixture to a slow boil, then slowly add sugar over low-med heat for about 5 minutes.
- If desired, add a little hot water to the sauce to thin it.
My rating
