Critic's Review
Cooper's Hawk, with locations in Coconut Creek and Pembroke pines, has opened a 15,000 sq foot restaurant in the space previously occupied by Natuzzii in the Galleria Mall.
The place is huge; they've taken over the old natuzzi space and wraps around to the other side.
You walk into a large room with is more like a gift shop than a restaurant; they're in the business of selling wine here. Why would I guy generic wine when I can get good stuff for half the price at Trader Joes?
Way, way at the end of the room is a reception area.
To the left is the bar; I didn't want to sit in the bar area.
The humorless hostess showed me to a table in a dark back section. While this area does offer privacy, it doesn't offer any light.
I quickly moved to another table on the other side of the way where all of the other diners were situated.
Lunch comes with bread; pretzel bread had made it onto every menu because every restauranteur in America has the same limited brain.
Soft break with nice soft butter. I tasted it but I didn't really want bread.
The menu here reminds me of Cheesecake Factory; many pages, lots of choices of pedestrian recipes. The lunch entrees menu is junk. I went with the soup and salad; order a wedge salad and the crab and lobster bisque.
The soup and salad came out together in 10 minutes.
All of the restaurants force these "combos" onto 1 plate. How are you supposed to eat soup like these? I moved the soup to my bread plate. It was piping hot; under-seasoned with chunks of stuff that didn't taste much like crab or lobster. I pulled out one of those mini-shrimp; pretty mediocre stuff.
I always ask for extra dressing for a wedge because the wedge is a lot of lettuce once you break it down.
This wedge had all the stuff on the side, so I decided to abandon the wedge in favor of a chopped salad.
Not a bad salad. The onions were cut into tiny squares and the dressing was too pungent. But overall not a bad salad.
A refill came in a separate glass with attention to detail.
Note to servers: If a customer asks for extra lemon in their iced tea, they probably also want it in the refill. This is how you maximize your tip.
I polished off the salad and I wouldn't need to eat again for many many hours.
Conclusion
The concept here is that Cooper's Hawk makes and sells their own wine. They have a winery in Illinois and the restaurant sells the wine in the restaurant and retail by the bottle in the store in the front. They push their "wine" club hard; it seems outdated to me; in the old days your wine choices were limited by whatever your local liquor store carried; today there are so many choices that "Wine Clubs" seem kind of silly.
The place reminds me of a Cheesecake Factory that specializes in wine; a massive restaurant with a massive menu that attempts to recreate every recipe known to common man. Lot's of bad Asian Fusion. A "Carbonara" with a "garlic cream sauce". Mall Food with a house Malbec?
That being said, it's a welcome addition to this mall; Darden is going to take a big hit as this place is more modern and more appealing than either the outdated Capital Grille or Season's 52.
