Bite in Venice
I took the little lady to Bite the other night in Venice. We try to go out together sans kids every other week or so. With a theme of Asian skewers and sushi and fancy cocktails, Bite looked right up our alley: we are lately into Asian fusion and she is Weight-Watching. We used Opentable to book a table.
My only worry was the location. A food snob of any order will tell you that the closer to the beach the worse the food. This was 1/2 block away.
We got there at 6:30 and didn't get to order until 7. As their upstairs wasn't open yet, we asked to sit at the bar (i nodded towards the, ahem, sushi bar -- we're here for food). Our hostess steered us towards the booze bar. Not necessarily a bad sign, you are welcome to think. But with the smell of beach crowd already on the air, I almost winced. This IS about food, right? And not sweet "martinis"? One look at the drink menu will set you straight. Good God Almighty, there are far too many craptinis offered. Their basic cocktail? Take high end liquor, cover it up with 3 different flavorings, dip rim of glass in some kind of spicy salt. Ugh.
That being said, my gaijintini was kinda fun!
The table next to us filled in at 6:55 with 5 or 6 folks in various states of beach undress. They quickly made a ruckus about ordering before Happy Hour ended. We had been patiently waiting to order for some time, but the waiter dutifully took their order first. When he came to our table, we kidded him about the rude table next to us and placed our order. We got the prawn salad and about 8 different skewers.
The food was pretty good for the most part. My pork skewer smelled a little off and was woefully undercooked besides. How that happens in the age of refrigeration and when there is a hot grill RIGHT THERE, I do not understand. We liked having the variety so that no one dish would need to carry the meal. In beachland, it's always wise to spread the food risk around. The service was spotty at best.
My ultimate take: NOT for destination dining and if the restaurant were 20 blacks inland it would be a lot better -- not just due to my expectations, but mostly due to the fact that it would pull in a different class of clientel. Still, if you are in the area anyway and don't want a burger or beach Italian food, it would be worth a try.
My only worry was the location. A food snob of any order will tell you that the closer to the beach the worse the food. This was 1/2 block away.
We got there at 6:30 and didn't get to order until 7. As their upstairs wasn't open yet, we asked to sit at the bar (i nodded towards the, ahem, sushi bar -- we're here for food). Our hostess steered us towards the booze bar. Not necessarily a bad sign, you are welcome to think. But with the smell of beach crowd already on the air, I almost winced. This IS about food, right? And not sweet "martinis"? One look at the drink menu will set you straight. Good God Almighty, there are far too many craptinis offered. Their basic cocktail? Take high end liquor, cover it up with 3 different flavorings, dip rim of glass in some kind of spicy salt. Ugh.
That being said, my gaijintini was kinda fun!
The table next to us filled in at 6:55 with 5 or 6 folks in various states of beach undress. They quickly made a ruckus about ordering before Happy Hour ended. We had been patiently waiting to order for some time, but the waiter dutifully took their order first. When he came to our table, we kidded him about the rude table next to us and placed our order. We got the prawn salad and about 8 different skewers.
The food was pretty good for the most part. My pork skewer smelled a little off and was woefully undercooked besides. How that happens in the age of refrigeration and when there is a hot grill RIGHT THERE, I do not understand. We liked having the variety so that no one dish would need to carry the meal. In beachland, it's always wise to spread the food risk around. The service was spotty at best.
My ultimate take: NOT for destination dining and if the restaurant were 20 blacks inland it would be a lot better -- not just due to my expectations, but mostly due to the fact that it would pull in a different class of clientel. Still, if you are in the area anyway and don't want a burger or beach Italian food, it would be worth a try.
posted by Joey JoeJoe at 2:02 PM
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