BroadwayGirl
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2005
- Messages
- 637
Friends and I decided to check out Paradiso 37 last night at Pleasure Island.
The restaurant features both indoor and outdoor seating and we were seated outside near the PI water launch dock. It was a pretty area but they need to do something about the bugs - including spiders.
Food:
I was actually surprised by how limited the menu was. They do have a GREAT food stylist - all the items pictured in the menu looked super appetizing.
We started out with their North American Potato Pancakes and while my friend loved them, I was sort of disappointed. They were shaped more like crab cakes and having grown up in NJ I prefer a more traditional Eastern European style. Flavors were good but not something I would get again.
My friend got the tres tacos and she actually found them a bit bland. She had a choice of several fillings and chose chicken, beef and mahi-mahi. They were accompanied by rice and beans which were unremarkable. There were also Mexican style pickled carrots which were the spiciest items on the plate.
My other friends shared the Mexican Quesadilla starter and again they were okay but nothing extraordinary.
I ordered the North American cheeseburger - boring but then again I'm not necessarily a big fan of hot and spicy foods. As a burger goes it tasted fine and I liked the fact that they use cheddar cheese instead of the ubiquitous American cheese but I didn't feel the burger lived up to its $12.99 price.
Drink:
My friend and I shared a pitcher of their "world's best red sangria." While it was good, it was not even in my top 5 sangrias so their "world's best" moniker is not fitting. And for $25, the pitcher seemed really small and contained a LOT of ice. I often go to Agave Azul where a friend and I will share a pitcher of their house margaritas for $19. We get three FULL margarita glasses each out of the pitcher. Here at Paradiso 37 the server initally gave us about a 5-6 oz pour and then we proabably had another 9 oz each (if that much). If we go back for drinks I would try their Mangled Margarita - a layered mix of their frozen margarita alternating with frozen sangria. Our other friends ordered beer and wine and again, their drinks were unremarkable.
Service:
Here is where we had our main issues. I realize this was their first "real" night being open and I was prepared for the snafus that often happen on opening night but I have to say that the service was worse than even my lowered expectations could take. We were seated arond 8:05pm and it was at least 10 minutes before our server stopped by the table. He took our order for the pitcher of sangria and then we waited. And waited. And waited some more. Finally he acknowledged that the sangria was taking too to arrive and offered to take our appetizer order. It was 30 minutes from the time we order until the time we received our drinks. I was trying to keep a good face on and cut them some slack but it was tough. My friend order a glass of wine - I believe it was a white malbec which was actually pink in color and the server brought him the wrong wine. The server had to come back with the menu so my friend show him again which wine he wanted. We then placed our main food order and again the service was really slow. At one point, the server brought us a plate of chips (freshly made, warm and yummy)and salsa to try to make up for the problems. It was just painful. We were there more than 2 hours. And from comments I overheard from a nearby table, I think some issues may have been beyond our server's control (such as kitchen issues); however, he was ill equipped to provide the guest service to ameliorate them.
The final straw came when we were leaving the restaurant after paying our bill. As we stood and began to leave the table the server came over to start clearing and didn't acknowledge us at all. No "thank you for coming" no "have a good night" or anything. I'm sorry but when you are working in a brand new restaurant which is having opening night issues you darn well better be thanking your guests as they depart. It was just the last straw.
Other:
Presentation was lovely but thats not as important as getting the taste right. The outdoor seating was nice but they have 2 ramps and a set of stairs leading to the patio which give the impression that the tables out there are open for the taking. This led to a lot of disgruntled folks who just walked up trying to get an outdoor table only to be told that they couldn't sit there. If they plan to use these tables as part of their main restaurant seating, they will have to post signs at the stairs and ramps directing people to the hostess stand for table.
They also had live entertainment in the form of a guy playing guitar and singing. He was excellent and got the best reviews of the night from everyone in our party. He will be there every Friday.
Bottom line:
Paradiso 37 has promise but still needs to work out the kinks. I don't think I'll retun anytime soon unless it is just for drinks. I can't honestly recommend it at this time.
The restaurant features both indoor and outdoor seating and we were seated outside near the PI water launch dock. It was a pretty area but they need to do something about the bugs - including spiders.
Food:
I was actually surprised by how limited the menu was. They do have a GREAT food stylist - all the items pictured in the menu looked super appetizing.
We started out with their North American Potato Pancakes and while my friend loved them, I was sort of disappointed. They were shaped more like crab cakes and having grown up in NJ I prefer a more traditional Eastern European style. Flavors were good but not something I would get again.
My friend got the tres tacos and she actually found them a bit bland. She had a choice of several fillings and chose chicken, beef and mahi-mahi. They were accompanied by rice and beans which were unremarkable. There were also Mexican style pickled carrots which were the spiciest items on the plate.
My other friends shared the Mexican Quesadilla starter and again they were okay but nothing extraordinary.
I ordered the North American cheeseburger - boring but then again I'm not necessarily a big fan of hot and spicy foods. As a burger goes it tasted fine and I liked the fact that they use cheddar cheese instead of the ubiquitous American cheese but I didn't feel the burger lived up to its $12.99 price.
Drink:
My friend and I shared a pitcher of their "world's best red sangria." While it was good, it was not even in my top 5 sangrias so their "world's best" moniker is not fitting. And for $25, the pitcher seemed really small and contained a LOT of ice. I often go to Agave Azul where a friend and I will share a pitcher of their house margaritas for $19. We get three FULL margarita glasses each out of the pitcher. Here at Paradiso 37 the server initally gave us about a 5-6 oz pour and then we proabably had another 9 oz each (if that much). If we go back for drinks I would try their Mangled Margarita - a layered mix of their frozen margarita alternating with frozen sangria. Our other friends ordered beer and wine and again, their drinks were unremarkable.
Service:
Here is where we had our main issues. I realize this was their first "real" night being open and I was prepared for the snafus that often happen on opening night but I have to say that the service was worse than even my lowered expectations could take. We were seated arond 8:05pm and it was at least 10 minutes before our server stopped by the table. He took our order for the pitcher of sangria and then we waited. And waited. And waited some more. Finally he acknowledged that the sangria was taking too to arrive and offered to take our appetizer order. It was 30 minutes from the time we order until the time we received our drinks. I was trying to keep a good face on and cut them some slack but it was tough. My friend order a glass of wine - I believe it was a white malbec which was actually pink in color and the server brought him the wrong wine. The server had to come back with the menu so my friend show him again which wine he wanted. We then placed our main food order and again the service was really slow. At one point, the server brought us a plate of chips (freshly made, warm and yummy)and salsa to try to make up for the problems. It was just painful. We were there more than 2 hours. And from comments I overheard from a nearby table, I think some issues may have been beyond our server's control (such as kitchen issues); however, he was ill equipped to provide the guest service to ameliorate them.
The final straw came when we were leaving the restaurant after paying our bill. As we stood and began to leave the table the server came over to start clearing and didn't acknowledge us at all. No "thank you for coming" no "have a good night" or anything. I'm sorry but when you are working in a brand new restaurant which is having opening night issues you darn well better be thanking your guests as they depart. It was just the last straw.
Other:
Presentation was lovely but thats not as important as getting the taste right. The outdoor seating was nice but they have 2 ramps and a set of stairs leading to the patio which give the impression that the tables out there are open for the taking. This led to a lot of disgruntled folks who just walked up trying to get an outdoor table only to be told that they couldn't sit there. If they plan to use these tables as part of their main restaurant seating, they will have to post signs at the stairs and ramps directing people to the hostess stand for table.
They also had live entertainment in the form of a guy playing guitar and singing. He was excellent and got the best reviews of the night from everyone in our party. He will be there every Friday.
Bottom line:
Paradiso 37 has promise but still needs to work out the kinks. I don't think I'll retun anytime soon unless it is just for drinks. I can't honestly recommend it at this time.
Thanks so much for posting this honest review.
