Critic's Review
Sometimes you know things in advance; I hadn't bothered to go to Hott leggz because I didn't think it would be worth going to. I'd been to Northridge Sports Lounge, the place they'd owned before, and I wasn't all that impressed. But recently they've positioned themselves as a "Chicago" bar, and the menu has evolved beyond burgers, crab legs and wings. I'm not big on crab's legs, so that never caught my interest.
In this part of town, they have the stupid parking meters only on one side of the road, and of course all of the free spots are always taken. The good news is that if you pay, you can park right out in front. Of course the meter ate my first quarter, but it's only 50 cents an hour.
Walking in, the first thing you notice is that this is a bar. Not a smoke filled bar, thankfully, but it doesn't resemble a restaurant in any way. It's also not a sports bar, at least not functionally. They have a lot of TVs, but with the Mets and Marlins playing, not one set was on the game. I'm sure they'd put it on, but the point is that none of the people in the bar, maybe 10 or so, cared about watching sports.
No hostess or greeting, so I just sat at a table and hoped someone noticed; the menus were on the table. Someone came over and I ordered an iced tea; it took quite a while to get it. I wanted to try the frogs legs so I ordered a half order, and I also ordered 2 soft shell crabs for $11. It "seemed" like a pretty good price.
The tea was delivered in a jumbo plastic glass with 4 lemon wedges, but with no sweetener. My attempts to get my server's attention (she was also bartending) failed, so I had to get up to ask for a setup. None of the tables had sweeteners.
The music was a modern mix, with Carry On, Little Talks and Kelly Clarkson followed by Madonna. The food came out together.
The Frogs legs are served with a very salty but appropriate romoulade, frog legs have a strong taste. The crabs were smaller than expected; usually restaurants serve "Primes" or "Jumbos", which are 4.5 to 5.5 inches in diameter. These were the smallest "Mediums", barely 3.5 inches.
The "silverware" comes in paper bags; it's silver in color but they're plastic. You have to cut soft shells with a knife, so serving these on paper isn't very smart, as you cut up the paper as you cut the crab. Soft Shells can be great; the best I've ever had were prepared Meuniere; these were no where close. You just dredge them in flour and pan fry them, how hard can it be? When I got to the flesh it was mushy so I thought it was undercooked; at just that moment my server asked how everything was. I mentioned that they seemed undercooked, so she took them back. The came back largely the same, so I'll guess they were just frozen and, well, mushy.
I ate the frogs legs and with 1/2 of my jumbo tea remaining I went to the bathroom. When I returned the table had been cleared. Now this place is just one room and the bar is about 9 feet from the table, AND I was the only one eating at a table, so you'd think that they might ask before clearing a table.
I paid the bill, never to return. $25 down the drain.
Everything cam out wrong and the new lighthouse point location wow SOOOOO Bad dd people are saying they won't last 6 month once the word gets out shame since we were kinda excited about a new spot. Told 20 plus people that were going there to PASS. And save food poison. Go for a beer and That it.