Grille 700 Overall Review
Grille 700 is located inside the Marriott Waterfront
Hotel. Grille 700 proves our theory that
hotel restaurants in Baltimore struggle to keep up with their stand alone
competitors. The décor is old world
nautical with a huge picture depicting the harbor in the mid 1800s. This mural sits above the open kitchen. The food is worthy of no world at all. It is painfully hit or miss, often flavorless
AND it is EXPENSIVE for no recognizable reason.
This restaurant was sparsely populated, and rightfully so. There is no
real reason to dine there. Overall we
give Grille 700 ♪.
700 Aliceanna Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
(410) 895-1879
The chef took 6 recently thawed
jumbo shrimp and clamped them onto a martini glass rimmed with old bay. He then added a gin infused cocktail sauce to
the glass. The shrimp were not that
fresh. The gin infused cocktail sauce
was intoxicating. The dish was not bad,
but it was not great either.
Spicy Tuna Tartare
What a disgrace to the tuna. How could the chef treat perfectly pink,
fluffy chucks of tuna in such a disgraceful fashion? There was not a speck of salt on the
plate. The tuna was tasteless, lay limp under the weight of an avocado, cucumber sesame spread, which was completely tasteless by the
way. What the heck!? We redeemed the dish by using the left over cocktail
sauce from the shrimp to add a little flavor to the tuna. The chef also added hard tasteless wontons to
the plate.
Adobo Skirt Steak
The steak was beautiful but treated
terribly. It was charred to the point of
tasting vinegary. It was not at all seasoned. The yucca fries were not too bad. They were salted and a little sweet, but the chef
glued them to the plate with his poop-y looking black bean puree. He should have used the super delicious puree
as a dipping sauce for the yucca fries and not an adhesive to the plate. The black bean puree had more flavor than
anything the chef served the entire night.
It was filled with rich Mexican flavors of cumin and cilantro.
Wahoo Special
…Except it was not at all
special. The chef cooked the living daylights
out of that poor fish. It was dry and
hard. But the flavor was not too
bad. The poor chef had the nerve to make
a Wahoo sandwich, smushing a crab cake in the middle. He literally had two hard pieces of fish with
a crab cake smashed between it. The crab
cake was gray, milly and doughy. We
struggled to find the crab in it. The
dishes presentation was quite theatrical, with a mountainous bush of hard fried
greenery.
Vanilla Crème Brule
It was not too bad. The sugar was nicely caramelized. The custard had a nice light texture and the
delicate vanilla flavor.
Banana Bread Pudding
This bread pudding was terrible. It was soggy and tasteless. It came with a bourbon cream sauce that was
so strong it was crazy. That stuff knocked
your socks off! It was so bad the chef
warned us before hand.
Well…..I’ll cut straight to the chase…I was VERY disappointed
with Grille 700. I have eaten there
before and the food has been rather good.
However this time it was a hot mess!
Most items were sad and pathetic, a few were interesting and the rest
was so unmemorable that I don’t remember it.
What makes the whole experience even more disappointing is that everything
was WAY too expensive. I mean we had a
coupon and still paid way too much for food that was subpar. I felt jipped, hoodwinked, bamboozled. We did not land on Plymouth Rock…Plymouth
Rock landed on us…Wait I’m sorry. I got so
upset I had a flash back to Malcolm X. Sigh…The
poor chef (who was new by the way), failed at his attempt to make consistently tasty
and delicious food. Let me tell you how
bad it was…catch this…I ordered steak with yucca fries. The only part of the dish that was great was
this poop colored black bean puree that he used to glue the yucca fries to the
plate. That poop-y colored glue was
fantastic. It was flavorful and
robust. The rest of the dish was just barely
ok. As a chef, the last thing in the
world you should want to be known for is wonderful tasting poop-y glue! That’s just crazy. However, that poop-y glue was my favorite
part of the meal. Again…sigh….I just
realized I think I have broken my own record for using the word poop so many times
in a single blog entry. This is
great. Wait… I digress. See what this food has reduced me to? Suffice it to say my vote is steer clear of
Grille 700. Your money is much better
spent a few doors down at Cinghiale where you will not be disappointed. Overall, I give Grille 700 a poop-y (Yes! I got it in one more time. J) ♪.
Angela's Review
Grille 700 is typical of restaurants located in hotels. We
say that every time we eat at one, and it is not a good thing. Typical for
hotel restaurants unfortunately seems to equal not very good. One day I really
hope to run across a hotel restaurant with fabulous food, but alas, this was
not that day. That being said, a really interesting thing about Grille 700 is
that, as mediocre as the food is as a whole, there were one or two things that
were very good thrown in. These included jumbo shrimp served in a martini
glass, rimmed with old bay, and filled with gin soaked cocktail sauce with
scallions, their version of shrimp cocktail; and a black bean puree that was served
with the chefs Carne Asada that was to die for. Other than that, the night was
filled with disappointment after disappointment, ending with disgruntled
feelings upon receiving the check. As I begrudgingly paid the bill, I longingly
imagined all the places I COULD have eaten.
I give Grille 700 ♪.
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