Friday, January 3, 2014

Restaurant Review - Red, Boca Raton

Red, The Steakhouse – Boca Raton


Orin Rosenfeld Boca Raton Restaurant Review
This place is right next to Farmer’s Table! It as the real former Mario’s place so you know I had to try it. Before getting in the door there were some negatives to overcome. First, the initially advertised the place as being from Miami, something that doesn’t endear you to eaters in Broward or Palm Beach County. Then they closed before being in business for less than a year. Mysteriously, it reopened again and got very positive reviews which I read. Prior to eating at Farmer’s Table I stopped in a checked out the place and menu. I decided to take a chance as it looked good.

The problem with this place is the same thing that was wrong with Copper Canyon. For those not familiar with that history, the owners of Copper Canyon opened a Houston’s knockoff restaurant. The problem was that it was less than ¼ of a mile from the actual Houston’s. Not being able to match their quality, variety and success, Copper Canyon quickly became history. Wouldn’t you know that Red is less than ½ mile from Abe & Louis? Which is one of the best steakhouses in the City. It is also very close to Morton’s. This doesn’t bode well from Red.

The food was not bad, although pricey and with not many healthy options to choose from. I got the stone crabs first and then a shrimp with white wine and garlic that was an appetizer that they did as an entrée. The crabs were good, but were not cracked enough. After some minor mishaps, I finally gave up and sent them back to the kitchen for more cracking. The mustard sauce it came with was excellent. The shrimp were very large, but also disappointing. Somehow, they were sort of creamy despite it being prepared with lemon, white wine and garlic. It was one of the rare times I didn’t finish my dish. My wife got the steak, which they really went on about how wonderful the quality was. She thought it was spicy and didn’t finish it. Other dishes, the shrimp with mustard sauce (my mom thought it was too spicy) and a salmon dish (my dad thought it was good and fresh but wasn’t crazy about the preparation. Desert was possibly the highlight, with my getting  the apple bread pudding. It was very good. My wife got the key lime pie, which was strangely frozen a little. Wines here by the glass we very good and they get extra credit for having desert wines by the glass. The place is one big open room and sort of noisy. With Abe & Louis nearby and way better, I don’t see this place succeeding. I wish them the best but in this town you better bring you’re a game when you open a restaurant. I wonder why they reopened?

Orin Rosenfeld
Rosenfeld Realty Advisors
9858 Glades Rd., Suite 209
Boca Raton, FL 33434 Phone: 561-756-1665
Fax: 561-470-0707

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