This is my first St. Augustine Restaurant Review. Me and the wife were headed out to the Outlet Mall for some serious purse shopping (for her, not me) and afterwards we were meeting some friends of ours in St. Augustine for some dinner and drinks. We used Urbanspoon.com to find a place since we don’t get out there that often.
504 Geoffrey St.
St. Augustine, FL. 32086
(904)547-2723
Location: I’m not too familiar with the area and it was dark so about the only thing I can say as far as location is: It’s in a strip mall like place. It is a stand alone restaurant but is located close to a Ross and a Panera.
Food: So, after a good couple hours of purse shopping, the wife had settled on one, and then it was time to head to dinner. We were at the mercy of Urbanspoon but I should have asked on Twitter or Facebook for some suggestions from my followers because I think Urbanspoon steered us wrong {insert defeated sigh here}. Pulling up to the place, I was pleased with the “curb appeal” and cleanliness of the inside once we stepped in. We were seated very quickly at one of the longest booth tables I have seen. If you have kids with you, and you stop here (against my advice), one of the cool things there is that the tables are covered with a thick white paper that your kids can color on if they want.
It is replaced after each guest, so do your best Picasso! Our friends were going to just have drinks and appetizers because they had eaten a little earlier but we were ordering entrees, we were famished going elbow to elbow against old ladies at the Outlet Mall. Our friends ordered the Calamari (Menu Description: flower dusted and lightly fried, served with our marinara sauce for $8.99). They let me sample a couple pieces and while it tasted fresh, it was overly salty (this ended up being the theme with a couple dishes). Everyone at the table agreed, way too salty. Next up was the Stuffed Mushrooms (Menu Description: Fresh mushrooms stuffed with real crab and baked, topped with a zesty lemon butter for $9.99) While the table liked them (I didn’t try one), I thought they looked way too small for how few were on the plate.
On to the entrees. My wife ordered the Hand Cut Filet (Menu Description: Hand cut filet grilled the way you like it. Served with your choice of homemade sides for $18.99) She ordered the sauteed spinach and the garlic mashed potatoes. The spinach was fresh and cooked perfectly and I loved the garlic mashed potatoes. The steak had a good seasoning to it but it was WAY under cooked.
She ordered it medium well and it came out medium rare. She didn’t send it back because we didn’t want her to end up eating by herself and she was going to take it home and reheat it (I know, it’s a sin, but she wasn’t going to throw it away) so she just ate around the edges and filled up on the spinach. I ordered the Grilled Shrimp and Goat Cheese Grit Cakes (Menu Description: two skewers of wood grilled shrimp and two goat cheese grit cakes served with a roasted red bell pepper cream sauce for $15.99) First off, there was a lot of shrimp, much more than I expected and they were seasoned perfectly. From there, it goes downhill.
The grit cakes were overly salted (again, a heavy hand with the salt) and I couldn’t taste a hint of goat cheese. I also couldn’t taste any of the “cream” in the cream sauce which was overly salted too. I’m not one to be overly sensitive about the amount of salt. I think in the 60 reviews I have done, this is my first salt complaint. Over all, I wasn’t impressed with the food at all. For this price point, I expect them to deliver a better meal.
Extras: The food was served incredibly fast, so that was a plus. Other than that, the service was a swing and a miss too. The waitress seemed like she couldn’t be bothered, missed a couple opportunities to get drink refills out in a timely manner. And once it was 9:15pm (they close at 10) you could see the whole staff watching us like hawks wanting us to get out (that was the feeling I got). It was a Friday night and at 9:15pm, there was only one other couple there, we left before them, so I imagine they got the brunt of the evil eye after we left. Sorry folks!
The Good:
– Fast food to table service
– Big booths
– After 9pm, you can have the place to yourself
The Bad:
– Food was salty
– Once food is on the table, you won’t see server till it’s check time
– After 9pm, you can have the place to yourself (see what I did there?)