Critic's Review
Over by the Hard Rock, the restaurant scene is pretty dreary. A lot of really old, leftover places. I noticed this place the last time I was there. So I thought I'd try some Chilean food.
The restaurant is on a very odd lot. There are just a couple of spots by the restaurant, and it appears that the employees take all of the good spots. There's a huge lot behind the restaurant; you'd think that they have the employees park in the back so customers could use the closer spots.
Inside, the place is like many of the latin restaurants; a big room with a bar and rows of wooden tables. Some decorations on the wall. A basic eatery.
No hostess; just sit where you want. Bread and salsa is brought to the table right away. Sort of the Chilean version of chips and salsa. Personally, I don't think about salsa with bread, but they do provide butter as well. The rolls aren't bad.
A dude who speaks English but I can tell it's not his first language offers me a beverage. "Iced Tea"? "Is Snapple OK?", "Oh, you don't have brewed tea". "I can make you some". They had tea on the menu, so dropping ice into it isn't too difficult.
One good thing is that it was definitely freshly brewed. And they have lemon.
I'm looking over the menu and not seeing anything that interests me. I feel like I should try an empanada, but they have raisins in them, and I don't want raisins in my food. I decided to try the fish, which you can get with rice, potatoes or a salad. I ordered it with a salad.
They play Spanish language music. 441 isn't exactly scenic; there are a lot of windows but nothing to really look at.
The food come out in 8 minutes. Not bad at lunch.
A Chilean salad is tomatos, onions and cilantro. This one as no dressing or seasoning. Some oil, vinegar, Salt. I got a bit of flavor into it.
The fish was a fleshy white fish with a light batter.
The fish used is Kingklip, something I've never knowingly had before. It's a lot like Cod; better than cod I've had recently. In fact, this preparation was a lot like the fish you get with fish and chips. Surprisingly good.
A big piece of fish and a load of tomatoes for $14.50; $28 on Las Olas, and it would be a smaller piece of fish.
Conclusion
There's little culinary skill here; the salsa, salad and fish were all devoid of proper seasoning and you can tell that they're just going through the cooking motions without trying to make anything taste good. A bit of dressing on the salad; even as an option for die hards, would have made a world of difference. And fish needs to be seasoned or served with a light sauce.
Nothing fancy here. Just food.