I’ve been a bit curious about the dinner at 8 thing. I mean, it’s an extra $5 savings over the 25 for $25 thing that’s on in November, but what does that get me, exactly? The 25 for $25 promotions that run twice a year will often give you an “in” to the slightly ritzier places, when a small-to-normal-size person (me) can get a manageable meal. My theory was that since you wouldn’t be able to get a smaller meal without much of the city rising up in protest, these restaurants would be regular restaurants with less-ritzy food.

Is that necessarily a bad thing? It really depends. If your food is fresh (and we’re so blessed in this state to have vegetables and fish tumbling into our arms from all directions), you have to work very hard to make something that doesn’t taste very good. If your creamy mashed potatoes contain fresh potatoes, cream, and butter at the very least, it can taste just as good as if you’d added garlic, truffles, and topped it with chives. On the other hand, if you add garlic powder, chopped up raisins, and minced grass to try and simulate something, then you are a very disturbed person.

I went in to Sand Point Grill with a pretty good idea of what food I wanted to try (since the menu’s on the website), but also expecting there’d probably be a few substitutions. Unfortunately they took the bread salad off the menu. It’s a pity — I’ve never eaten one that I like, but I keep trying. I opted for the caesar salad instead, trying not to fill up before dinner. The husband got the teriyaki beef tips, which tasted really, really good. The tips were very tender, and I got to nab the noodles in the center, soaking in the sauce. I wasn’t quite sure what the point of having pickled ginger as a garnish was. As a riff off the whole “japanese” thing, I thought it was a bit silly and extraneous.

For our main dishes, I got the gnocchi, and the husband got the rockfish in a curry sauce. He wasn’t really impressed, but it wasn’t because of the food as much as the preparation. The fish was sitting on top of rice noodles, and the tasty curry sauce had soaked right through, leaving the rockfish blandly tasting of just fish. What a waste. My gnocchi was actually a lot better, leaving me to wonder why the restaurant would bother dabbling on the asian side of things, when it was clear that this was where their talents lay. My favorite gnocchi dish would have to be Firenze Ristorante’s gnocchi. On a good day, when they’ve had a chance to let the pasta stale up a bit before cooking, it’s toothsome and chewy, and covered with tomato sauce, garlic, and cheese. It’s an intense tomato-ey treat. Sand Point Grill beat this, in one area: after they got done cooking the gnocchi, they sauteed it so it was lightly brown and toasty. What a treat. The argula was surprising — I’ve only ever had it raw in salads; never sauteed. It wasn’t limp. It wasn’t watery. It provided a nice bitter bite to counterpoint the plainer gnocchi. I played with the meal: first just eating arugula, then just the gnocchi, and then a combination of the two. Simply delish!

After that, dessert became a bit of a let-down for me. The lemon + vanilla bean creme brulee had obvious signs of gelatine in it, but that’s actually ok with me — whatever it takes to get that sucker to set is fine. What wasn’t so fine was the intense taste of lemon. Holy lemon sours, Batman! It was like they had taken an entire lemon, pureed it, and strained a creme brulee through it. I could taste everything, even a slightly bitter taste of lemon oil off an imagined rind. Huh?There’s vanilla in this? Spin me another tale! The husband got a peach strawberry cobbler, which I can’t comment on at all — I don’t believe in baking peaches. He seemed to like it, though.

The service was hurried but friendly. Although we went on a Tuesday, much of the restaurant was full, with other newcomers trying out Dinner at 8. A waiter advised us to sit at the front, “there’s a party of 16 at the back of the restaurant, which might be a bit noisy for you guys.” I perched happily on my barstool and watched the bartender work the bar AND take food orders from three tables at the same time.

So what’s the lesson here? There’s good food to be had at the Sand Point Grill but their dinner at 8 menu is a bit of a crapshoot. My advice? Persevere and pick the simpler-looking dishes.

Related posts:

1. I can’t wait until September
2. Fresh Grill: what’s the catch?
3. The Anti-Thanksgiving Dinner
4. I’ll take a salad with that salad
5. Dinner Report: Earth & Ocean