| Bonefish Grill bonefishgrill.com 500 Route 73 North Marlton, NJ 08053 (map) |
Survey Says: Amazing! |
It is RARE when I rave about a restaurant (high standards, you know how it is), so perk up your ears (eyes?) because here’s one such occasion.
I came down to New Jersey (from Boston, where I live) to be there for my parents as they took the final step towards becoming American citizens. Now we are one big happy gringo family (thank you thank you, we are excited, too). Such a momentous occasion deserved a nice dinner celebration. And when I say “nice” I mean the kind of “nice” when people say “I’m going to take her to a nice restaurant.” Yeah, THAT kind of nice.
The Bonefish Grill was everything we hoped for and more. I must say that I was abit skeptical at first. I mean, this is a fish restaurant and I am mostly a meat lover. One look at the menu, and I thought “well, this will do, I guess.” The entire experience ended up being SO divine that I decided to not only rate my own dinner, but also my parents and grandmother’s dinner, the decor and the extra stuff (extra stuff? what could that be? keep reading!). Ready? Set. Go!
Décor:
I’m not going to say this was the best bread I’ve ever had, but I can’t say it’s the worst (for a pretty bad review of bread, see my Rosie O’Grady’s review). It was actually on the “better” side. The pesto dip was definitely a unique twist on the popular appetizer (delicious, too!). I won’t rave, but it gets my thumbs up.
Sides: grilled asparagus, and vegetable of the day: spaghetti squash with honey and ginger glaze and a bit of brown sugar topping.
My mother’s assessment: “Can’t go wrong with trout… or asparagus!”
I tried it myself off her plate, and I thought it was a bit… “blocky.” It was quite dense, not very tender. This might be a quality of trout rather than Bonefish’s cooking, so I’ll leave that with you.
As for the vegetable of the day, every single one of us left it on our plates. I am a huge fan of sweetened squash, so I was surprised. It was just not as delicious as butternut squash with maple syrup, which I would consider to be spaghetti-squash-with-honey-and-ginger-glaze’s better-looking younger sister. Just didn’t compare.
Sauce: Mango salsa | Sides: Veg medley | App: House Caesar
My father’s assessment: “I should have gone with a different sauce. This is good for trout, but not sea bass.”
I did get a chance to try the salad, and it was alright. Not bad, but not anything to write a blog post about.
Description from the website: “A passionate tale of forbidden love – so steamy, so indulgent, that it can only be expressed with a 6 oz wood-grilled sirloin and sweet lobster, lump crab, a velvety sauce with a hint of sherry, and garlic whipped potatoes. Or maybe it was a filet for +$6? Either way.”
My grandmother’s assessment: “the lobster was a joke, but good overall.” That’s translated from Spanish, so what she meant was that it wasn’t nearly enough. I guess she was expecting a whole lobster! She seemed to like it, though.
Sauce: Lemon Butter | Sides: Garlic Whipped Potatoes and vegetable of the day
I am going to tell you right now: out of all the dishes in front of me that night, I did not envy anybody else’s choice over mine at ALL. I definitely got the best of them all. The shrimp was cooked to perfection. You know how frozen shrimp is chewy when you warm it up? Not so here! Perfect scallops, perfect shrimp, and I am VERY HAPPY to have gone with the lemon butter sauce. I was thinking of mango, but I’m glad I changed my mind. Come to think of it, if I ever went back to the Bonefish Grill, I would probably get the same thing.
Still, did not eat the spaghetti squash.
You know how brownies are sometimes plagued by those pesky nuts? Well, not so here! The nuts were ON TOP of the brownie! Which means that I was able to enjoy every single bite. The brownie was warm, and it had a thing layer of chocolate topping (it was too soft to be frosting, but too hard to just be syrup). The entire thing was just amazing.
Can you believe this super duper fancy place had hashtags for you to share your experience on twitter??? Oh yeah, I was ALL over that.
“#bfgcoasters: if you this a Bonefish Grill Coaster, what would you say?” My tweet:
#bfgcoasters No hablo español… wtf r u guys saying??? http://t.co/2wX3S0LPzL
— ina (@inacove) November 26, 2013
#tuesdaytales: use it to rave about your awesome experience with the Tuesday specials at the restaurant.My tweet:
#tuesdaytales GREAT meal at Bonefish Grill in Marlton, NJ. I didn't envy anybody else's dish. GET THE SCALLOPS&SHRIMP pic.twitter.com/q3xoKwabXC
— ina (@inacove) November 28, 2013
That was our unbelievable experience at the Bonefish Grill. And now, for the truly tacky finale, brought to you by the never-wasters, my mother and grandmother:
The End.
ina