John’s Ramblings

Being in a Friday celebratory mood last night, I gathered up Terri and Brendan for a trip down to Kent Station for dinner. I’m a fan of this collection of stores and restaurants, to the point of working it into our Newcomers bike rides here in the valley.

Last night I thought we’d try the Zephyr Grill and Bar. Terri and I ate there once, shortly after they opened. We were underwhelmed (as I recall), but I chalked that up to the establishment being relatively new. I think that they have been open for over a year now, so my hope was that we’d have a better experience. Silly me.

The server was a bit intense, asking us at least 4 times in 5 minutes if we were ready to order. A simple observation that we were all still squinting at the mouse-print menu might be a good indication that we were not ready to order. Terri and Brendan both opted to have the duck. “We don’t have any duck… in fact, we’ve never had it since it was put on the menu.” Brendan’s fall-back position was a braised lamb shank, Terri opted for my choice of veal saltimbocca served on a bed of white beans. We also ordered an appetizer of artichoke-gruyere dip.

The dip was actually ok.

The saltimbocca was very much like eating pork-and-beans, only less flavorful. The bonus was the very chewy pieces of meat. Brendan’s lamb shank was a giant bone with a big hunk of meat at one end, served in a bowl with a little broth. Once he managed to extricate a bite of meat from this beast, it was apparent that it had been boiled to the point of having zero flavor. He sent it back to the kitchen, and to their credit they did take it off the bill. All dinners were served with tonight’s vegetable, which was a hunk of broccoli that had been steamed to death.

The atmosphere is pretty upscale, as are the prices (entrees range from $15-$25 or so). The service and food, somewhat less so. Visit Kent Station, and eat at either Duke’s, The Ram, Fondi, or Zao. I’d recommend giving Zephyr a wide berth.

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