Great review, Dean! Where did you stay (off subject. ) Where is Horizons? If you are such a Fausto fan, I wish you would have tried his Bistro on the boards...I heard it's really good. PS..the liquer you had was Limoncello, I think. Sea ya.............
DINING REPORT 2008
Fri, 07/18/2008 - 18:10
#1
Sat, 07/19/2008 - 18:52
#3
Mon, 07/21/2008 - 10:57
#4
Captpat, We stayed at the Hoilday Inn Suites (18th st on the boards). I actually plan to post more on my stay at the hotel, but it will have to wait for another day...
Horizons is located inside the Clairon hotel.
I have been to Fausto's Bistro, (check my 2007 dinnig report!) it was very good to say the least. I would have liked to hit it this year as well, but it just didn't fall into place.
I'd be willing to bet you're right about the Limoncello! (that's funny!) I was going to go back and edit that in my post, but after reading back through it, it's the most entertaing part. You'll just have to forgive me, but after not stepping foot in a bar for the last 6&1/2 years, I'm slightly out of touch with these new trends. Although at one time when it came to drinking, I was quite the "common sewer"....:D
on second thought better change that so I don't have someone ask for the wrong thing...
Mon, 07/21/2008 - 15:02
#5
I have to disagree with your opinon of Horizons. We tried it for the first time in May, after reading all the rave reviews here. To say we were disappoointed is an understatement. It was dark, gloomy, and I actually saw a woman next to me with a flashlight to read her menu..............at 4 in the afternoon! The buffet food was nothing special. Mediocore at best. They kept the cold crab legs filled, but only refilled the hot ones once the whole time we were there. Their price was only two dollars less than the Bonfire, so no real bargain there. The wait staff never once refilled our drinks (soda for my hubby and ice water for me), so we were thirsty. They have a large desert buffet, but again, nothing special. Jello, chocolate cake, cheesecake, and angel food cake. Would I go there again? No, I don't think so.
We also stayed at the Holiday Inn Suites. It was nice, and the rooms were huge with a jacuzzi tub (which we never use) and two queen beds. The furniture in the living room area was dirty, and when we checked into our room, there was dried pee on the toilet rim. Guess the maid missed it. But they sent another maid immediately and it was taken care of along with a discount coupon for their restaraunt. We enjoyed our stay there and would stay there again if we could get the same price (free). But I've stayed at the Dunes Manor for less money, and it's just as good.
Tue, 07/22/2008 - 17:15
#6
Z06RL;25683 wrote:
I have to disagree with your opinon of Horizons.
Sorry to hear you had such a bad experience at Horizons, (I remember reading your post, and almost didn't go because of it) it almost makes me wonder if maybe they scale it back off season, because our expierence was almost 180 degrees in the other direction. Crab legs were hot, and plentiful, all the food was fresh, service was like Jonny on the spot with the refills! & deserts were a huge selection too. So either we hit it right or you guys hit it wrong, or maybe a little bit of both are true...
The things we liked about this buffet vs. the Bon Fire, Embers, & Phillips - First off you are not seated on top of other people. All the food is seperated off in different stations. This probably not something that most people think about, but when you have a child that is allergic to shell fish, this (cross contamination)is a huge problem with buffets. You can also walk straight up from your table to the food with out being pushed, shoved, or cut in front of... I'm not a big fan of paying to fight people for my food. another thing is all the food stations are along the perimitor of the room, so you can see the food from your table, this is one thing I hate about the other "big 3" when you have to walk in and out of different dining rooms to get from the table to the food and back. at Horizons, Everyone sits in one huge room, and you can walk right up to the food, and look back and see your table. My kids also found the set up of this place alot easier to manage.
Tue, 07/22/2008 - 19:51
#7
I have had those lamb chops at the sunset grille last year. They really are good. I think more people would like lamb if they had it prepared properly. It is very easy to burn for the do it yourselfers at home. The tempura lobster is also very good.
We have gone to Antipasti twice in the same week as well. It really is that good.
brianpa
Sun, 08/03/2008 - 18:00
#8
We went to seacrets for lunch and I must say it was way over priced. We had 2 bowls of crab soup (small) a hot dog, salad, chicken sandwhich 2 sodas and 1 ice tea $50 before tip. Never eating there again. I don't mind paying for good food..but that was a bit ridiculous
__________________
I hate clothes
Sun, 08/03/2008 - 23:30
#9
topper;25817 wrote:
We went to seacrets for lunch and I must say it was way over priced. We had 2 bowls of crab soup (small) a hot dog, salad, chicken sandwhich 2 sodas and 1 ice tea $50 before tip. Never eating there again. I don't mind paying for good food..but that was a bit ridiculous
Personally, I think Seacrets is very overrated. Since they're such a hot spot, they charge whatever they want. For the life of me, I'll never understand the popularity of that place.
Mon, 08/04/2008 - 02:11
#10
You are paying for the view. I just ate there today however. I had a Chicken Bacon Panini for $10.99 which was good. Smoked Tuna for $10.99 which was really good. Jerk chicken is good too and steamers were well, Steamers. Pretty much the same as anywhere else in OC.
You dont go to Seacrets for the Food.
There's literally hundreds of places o go to eat. Enjoy Seacrets for what it is.
OCJay
Ok. here it is my yearly report of our week of dining in OC.
July 3rd : Ok, this has nothing to do with OC dining, because we this year we
decided to stay over night in Kent Narrows so we could beat the bridge traffic
on the 4th (worked out real well) We ate at a restaurant called Fisherman's Inn.
Not great, but not terrible either, it was close to our hotel. I thought the
crabcakes were just a little to wet, and had a very strong taste which I believe
was mustard, never the less I thought everything else her was fine, I just
wouldn't order the cakes again.
July 4th : DaVinci's By The Sea - I wanted to avoid moving the car if at all
possible for the weekend, so this day, we took a short walk down the boards to
DaVinci's. This place has been a favorite of our's for over a decade. I had the
usual mussles over pasta w/the marinara sauce, I believe my wife had cheese
ravioli, as did 2 of the kids, my youngest daughter has fetticini alfreado.
Everthing was good as always, endless salad, tons of great food for a low price, right on the boardwalk this place is a winner with me and my
family every time. I would also like to suggest the blue crab ravioli as an
appetizer. Actually 2 orders of this could make a good meal for me.
July 5th : Antipasti - Alright, I know people probably get sick of hearing me
sing the praises of this place year after year, so if you don't want to read
another flaming good review of this restaurant, then skip to the next
paragraph... I really can not say enough good about this place. I know in a time
when money is tight do to gas prices and all that a lot of people visiting OC
will be limiting their dinning out while they are in town, but let me just say this - IMO, if you're vacationing in OC and can only make it out for one night of dining, THIS is the restaurant to choose! The quality of the food is unmatched, you can tell Fausto goes the extra mile with every ingredient that goes into each dish. The spring mix in the salads are crisp & fresh along with the tomatoes that have that right out of the garden taste. The pasta is never over cooked. The fried calimari is always done to perfection, and the service is first class all the way! ...On this particular visit I had the special, which was a lump crabeat over linguini with a tomato/cream sauce, EXCELLENT! My wife had the chicken parm, and the kids all had gnochi, & cheese rav's. I never seen my 5 year old eat as much as he did this night! everything was out of this world good, even down to the deserts that we didn't need.
July 6 : The Victorian Room - In an atempt to stick to my guns and not move the car, I chose this place because we could just ride the tram to the end of the boardwalk and have just a short walk from there... I would say this place was good, but not great. My wife and I both had the crabcakes, they were actually very good, they had did have some filler, but mostly lump crab meat. I was kind of surprized they were that good, because you never really hear much about this place. My daughters both had chicken ceaser salads which were also very good. The one draw back I seen with this place was the menu. The best things I seen were the specials of the day, the problem with that is - we got there at 6:30 and the daily specials were over! ????????? still don't get this....
July 7th : Sunset Grille - VERY good food, very nice outdoor seating. I had the softshell crab special of the day, my wife had the tempura fried lobster tail, both were excellent, I would also highly recomend the fried green tomatoes, and the lollipop lamb chops for appetizers. I stole a bite of my one daughter's filet, it was done perfect pink all the way through, my son's NY strip looked good (no chance of getting any of that, because the kid eats like a pig!). The only problem here was it took FOREVER to get our food. I still have no clue why, the waitress came back multiple times to say she was sorry, but it would have been nice to have the manager stop by with an explaination. We over looked this because the food was perfect when it finally came out, and you could tell the waitress felt bad about it...
July 8th : Horizons - Everything you've heard about this place is true. As fas as buffets go, this one has the best QUALITY of food. There seafood selection may be some what smaller then the other buffets in OC but at least you didn't have to fight for your food!
July 9th : Franco's Pizza - Needed a break from it all and just felt like getting some pizza on the boards. This place is located on 16st on the boards on the bottom floor of the Sea Scape Motel. probably my favorite pizza on the boards, 2 pies fed the 6 of us for under 40 bucks! can't go wrong there!!!
July 10 : Antipasti - Again? yep! liked it so much went back again. Same as always truely perfect in every fashion. This time I had the shrimp over pasta with the white wine sauce (sorry Fausto I can't remeber the correct name of the dish) it was wonderful, the shrimp were so plump and fresh and cooked to perfectionthat they almost exploded in your mouth! My wife had the Filet, crusted in italian herbs - not sure what the secret is to this but it was probably the best tasting steak I've ever come across anywhere. Mortons, and Ruth chris have nothing on this piece of meat.
Hint - (if you are over 21) after your meal treat yourself to a shot of Limoncello. You'll thank me! :cool:
July 11th : Pepper's Tavern - this was our last day in OC, & we been walking past this place all week and for years we've been saying we were going to stop and never did, well this was an extra added on day for us anyways because we were originaly suposed to check out on the moring of the 11th but felt like staying one more night so we did. This place is not bad at all, I had the fish tacos and everyone else seemed to like what they got as well. price was fair, and walking a block and a half down from the hotel & sitting right on the boards for dinner is always an extra added bonus for me!
Well, that's it for another year...