Narcoossee's is a signature restaurant that gets some pretty bad reviews. I was hoping to come here and write a very positive review of the place, since we've usually enjoyed our experiences here. From a food standpoint, I can say we enjoyed everything. And yet, we left the restaurant not wanting to return.
Here are some pictures I took before we were seated:
We were seated at a nice window table with views of the lagoon. There was some confetti on the table before we arrived.
Here's the menu:
My mom actually received a personalized menu for her birthday, but I forgot to take a pic and our server didn't offer to let her keep it.
Our server seemed friendly enough, but we were distracted because he never said "happy birthday." I mean, colorful confetti and a personalized menu (that she didn't get to keep) are nice touches, but they do that for everyone who includes a birthday on the reservation. The personal touch makes all the difference, and he never added that touch.
Here's the sourdough bread with Hawaiian pink sea salt on the butter. As usual, bread, butter, and sea salt tastes good, and the bread at Narcoossee's is unique - crusty and flaky.
To start, my mom chose the heirloom tomato salad with house-made mozzarella, arugula, and citrus-basil pesto. It's hard to go wrong with a variation of a caprese salad - creamy mozzarella, sweet tomato, sharp balsamic, and peppery basil flavor, and in this dish the slight zest of citrus really added a nice flavor. I tried some, and I actually liked this more than Flying Fish's similar salad. You can see a piece of the confetti in this pic:
My appetizer choice was the lobster spring roll with spicy mayonnaise and soy-orange dipping sauce. I really enjoyed this. Normally I prefer spring rolls that aren't fried, but here the crispiness helped contrast with the large chunks of soft, sweet lobster. The slaw on the plate was zesty and refreshing, and both sauces worked well with the spring roll without being overpowering. Again, I liked this dish better than Flying Fish's recent Asian-inspired lobster appetizer.
The spicy mayo had a nice heat to it, which I liked at first. But eventually, I finished drinking my glass of water about halfway through the appetizer course. Now, the spiciness was really getting to me since I had no drink to cool off my mouth. I spent a long time waiting for water - a long, long time. I saw a nearby server do the "water circuit" for her various tables about three times, and we were just sitting there with empty plates on the table and no water in our glasses. I felt like I was dying. In fact, it wasn't even our server who ended up finally refilling my glass. The nearby server saw how visibly thirsty I was, and eventually she went out of her way to stop at our table and provide some water. And practically the whole time, our server was at the table next to us, schmoozing with them, cracking jokes, and serving up free courses (they received about 6 courses on the house, by my count). We aren't the types to be petty and envious - we've been in their position occasionally, and it makes the experience extra special. However, to us it felt like the server wasn't doing his job. He had at least 5 other tables to take care of, and he was spending almost all of his time at 1. The rest, it seemed like he really couldn't care less about - he wasn't even the one to bring the food out. That's why the lack of a "happy birthday" was so noticeable. He had to have seen somewhere that it was my mom's birthday celebration, either on the reservation ticket or on the menu that he took away. But to us, we received a very mechanical, bare-minimum level of service, while he was more than capable of charming and impressing who he wanted to.
Sorry for the rant - my mouth still regrets that night.
For my entree, I chose the steamed whole Maine lobster with baked sherry-cheddar orecchiette pasta and broccolini. I loved this dish. The lobster was tender and sweet, the broccolini had a nice garlic flavor, and the pasta had a lovely flavor from the garlic and white wine. The top layer of pasta was crispy, but inside it was nice and saucy, and the sweetness of the tomatoes added an interesting bite occasionally. Honestly, this is the kind of dish where simplicity really works. The flavors of garlic, white wine and butter worked perfectly with the lobster, which was way better than a whole lobster dish I recently had in New York.
My mom picked the surf & turf, which had recently changed its accompaniments: it now included potato galette, shallot red wine butter, spinach and charred tomato salad. This was much better than the surf and turf last summer. The lobster was less rubbery, the potatoes were less dry and useless, and the salad provided a refreshing bite in contrast with the meat (which was cooked to my mom's liking) and the lobster.
Finally, dessert. Here's the menu:
I went with the Florida strawberry-lemon tart with strawberry sauce and whipped cream. Once again, it was simple but I really liked it. The strawberry and lemon both added a tartness and sweetness, but overall the taste was a pleasant combination (not too tart). The pastry was soft, and the lemon layer was nice and creamy. The whipped cream added another enjoyable texture element.
My mom chose the mango sorbet with melon, pineapple, and berries. This was a nice, light dessert. The sorbet had a refreshing flavor, and it slowly melted into the fresh fruit below.
We also had some vanilla rooibos tea with our dessert. I love rooibos, and I'm happy that many of the signature restaurants are adding it to their tea list.
While we were enjoying dessert, our server dropped the bill off and left. We were using credits, so we had to add the tip before receiving the final bill - we gave just over 20% (which is lower than we usually give). He came back, immediately opened the bill, and looked visibly disappointed. Soon enough, he returned, dropped the bill off, and with a kurt "thank you" he returned to his special table. No happy birthday at all, no smile, no redeeming factor to the service - we haven't had such awful service at a signature restaurant in years. As we walked out, my mom wanted to speak to a manager, but she was told he wasn't around.
So we left Narcoossee's disappointed. The food was very good in terms of quality, and (while I don't think I would ever want to pay OOP for our entrees) we felt the food overall was a great use of 2 credits each. But what really stuck in our minds was the service. We felt unwelcome, and we were wondering if we did something wrong (perhaps they don't like it when people use credits to order lobster?). Either way, Narcoossee's is off our list for quite a while. I'm sad to say it, since when I speak objectively about the food, it was a very tasty meal.
The sky was beautiful as we walked out of Narcoossee's.
It's a shame about California Grill, since we used to have consistently great meals there. And I'm not surprised about Narcoossee's - the food there was very good this trip (although the service let us down).
AP is very quiet and peaceful (especially if your meal is just after they open or towards the end of the night). There's pleasant background music, and the buffalo dish was amazing, IMO - unique meat, colorful presentation, and perfect seasoning. Even if you opt to have a regular steak, we preferred AP's prime beef tenderloin over Yachtsman's filet and porterhouse.
I'm glad to see you enjoyed yours, but I'm thankful I live on the coast of New England!
Seriously, we've been going to Narcoossee's for over 12 years, and we felt like pariahs thanks to the staff. Not anymore - their food isn't good enough to pay high prices (or 2 credits) and be treated like dirt.
