Critic's Review
M-Bar has closed.
*******
One of my favorite restaurants up north is Barcelona in Greenwich, CT. Not because it's a great restaurant, but because it's such a great place to go on a date. It's a wine bar that serves Spanish Tapas. It's great to share these "small plates"; a fun way to turn a meal into a taste experience that you can share to make an evening more memorable. They have so many good things on their menu: potato tortillas, Papas Bravas, meatballs, chorizo and Manchego cheese, diver scallops; there's something for everyone. When I moved down here, I was drawn to La Barraca, a place with a similar menu and concept. I haven't been there in a while, mainly because I don't particularly care for Hollywood and I haven't dated anyone from there for a while.
So when Jack Mancini announced that he was opening a Tapas bar it aroused some interest. The only clue we had initially was that they called them "Global Tapas", something I didn't have a lot of time to research in advance. Now that i have, and I've seen the menu and been to the restaurant, I'm not nearly as interested as I was a month ago.
For starts, Mancini has done a great job from a physical standpoint; its a big open room with a center bar, lots of big plasma TVs showing news and sports, and eclectic seating including bar mini-booths, full sized booths, plank tables for large groups and some circular booths similar to the ones at Big City Tavern. There's nice artwork on the walls, good lighting and a pretty girl in a corset behind the bar. A perfect place to watch Monday Night Baseball and have some wings, I thought as I walked in.
On my first visit, I had no idea what to expect. We'd asked Mancini for a menu, which he said he'd send over; but they never did. Probably bad advice from their PR firm, who seems to think that tricking people into coming to a restaurant is a good strategy. I had trouble finding much on the menu that I wanted to try; it was a lot of fancy stuff that would just be a crapshoot as to whether I'd enjoy it. I was pretty hungry, so I wasn't looking for an experiment. I decided on the short ribs, which are described on the menu as "braised kobe short ribs, dark chocolate stout reduction, truffled polenta" for $10. It came out in relatively short order.
The brownie sized morsal was placed in front of me. I thought about the massive double cheeseburger I had for lunch that day for $5.29. Now when you get something like this it better really pop; it better be memorable. You'd think with all of the buzz words "kobe" and "dark chocolate stout" that this dish would be crazy good. But there was none of that here. This was just bland from head to toe. The rib lacked seasoning; I had to salt it to be able to finish it. You really shouldn't need to salt a kobe short rib. The polenta had zero taste as well. The dish was just a failure.
I didn't want to try anything else after that; so for $25 I had a glass of wine and I was just as hungry as when I came in.
After that visit, I read some other reviews and decided to give some of the other dishes a shot. I asked for the menu again, and was completely surprised; the menu was almost completely different. The pigs ears that I was going to try were off the menu. There were more things that interested me this time; Sauteed Clams, Mac N Cheese, Tuna Sashimi. And wings. I decided on the Indian spiced chicken wings for $7.
While I was waiting, I examined the menu more closely. I noticed that the Kobe Short Rib was now $13; had the price of kobe short ribs gone up 30%, or were they giving a larger portion; it was still on the small plates part of the menu. Meanwhile, potato chip crusted onions were the same price but had moved from the medium plates to small plates. Where they giving a smaller portion for the same amount? Grilled Octopus, which I'd seen in another review, had moved from the small plates menu ($7) to the Medium Plates menu ($13) and was prepared with a "garlic whistle sauce" instead of "sea beans and a parsley sauce". Were they giving a larger portion now? Previously, all of the "Bar Snacks" were $4-$5; now they were $5-$7. Crispy flat breads went from $8-$9 to $11-$13. The "farm burger" (I'm not sure what that is; a cow from a farm, or a veggie burger?) went from $12 up to $14. The grilled lamb lollipop went from $9 to a whopping $16. The full sized dinners (what they originally called "large plates"); the NY Strip and the Grouper are no longer on the menu.
Finally, the wings were served.
I didn't quite know what to expect with these; "Indian Spiced" is pretty vague. They could have been curried, or dusted with Turmeric or Cumin. There were 6 small wings; about $1.15 each. These were unexpectedly sticky sweet with a bit of a curry influence (my fingers still smell of it after 3 washings). They were pretty good; certainly a better value than the short rib. They weren't spicy (hot) at all. More like a variation on chinese chicken wings. They could have used a better yogurt sauce; this was pretty watery and didn't add as much contrast as I would have liked.
Some dudes nearby ordered flatbreads and the Mac N Cheese; the flatbreads, although listed as a "large plate", are half the size you'd get anywhere else. The mac N cheese, considered a medium plate, came in a soup bowl sized baking dish.
So after 2 visits I was more confused than after the first, mainly because the menu seems like it's some sort of rubix cube. They say that it's "evolving" rather than just changing daily, but it seems more like an exercise in marketing to me. Raising prices, swapping stuff off of the menu and between categories. A marketing exercise of "how do we position these dishes to get people to pay more for less".
From what I saw, a good estimation is that you get about 1/2 the amount of food you'd expect to get elsewhere. With Spanish Tapas, the point of small plates is that you can try twice as many dishes for the same amount of money. With "Global Tapas", the idea is to make twice as much money by providing half the food for the full portion price.
2 months later, the silliness continues. The "kobe" rib is now $15; the wings are $9. The kitchen has completely turned over, with long-time floridians Kevin McCarthy and Ted Inserra now in the kitchen. I don't see that there are too many new menu items; they just seem all jumbled up. The girls in the corsets are gone and there's now a dude in a Tee shirt; certainly not a plus. They also no longer carry Abita beer, so my chance at scoring a Turbo Dog on Las Olas is gone.
The big question with this place is whether or not you think it's worth it. Indian spices don't cost more than butter and hot sauce, so why should I be willing to pay more for these wings? Perhaps "Farm-Fresh" food is worth a 15% premium; so why would I be willing to pay a 100% premium for a fancier recipe?
The second menu is much better than the original. I could see this place being an interesting change of pace with fair prices. But at the current price levels; not so much.
They've opened for lunch, but they seem to have the same menu with the same prices, which makes little sense. Nothing about this place makes much sense to me. Hopefully they'll abandon the Global Tapas nonsense and start serving regular food soon. It could be a very nice place.
