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Last Update: Jul 19th, 2011
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Himmarshee Bar & Grille Side Bar

210 SW 2nd St
Fort Lauderdale FL, 33310
(954) 524-1818
Overall Rating
2.8
Food
Service
Ambiance
Last Review
07/19/2011

Details

Hours: 11:30am-2pm, 5pm-close
Attire: Casual
Parking: Street Metered, Garage
CC: Yes
Alcohol: Full Bar
Prices: Expensive
Outside Dining: Yes
Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Fri, Sat
Happy Hour: Mon-Thu 5pm-7pm, Fri/Sat 5pm-8pm 2 for 1 Beer, wine, well drinks, cocktails

Critic's Review

*** This venue is has closed and is now PL8 ***

The first time I ever heard of the Himmarshee Bar and Grille was in a Porno movie. It was long before I even thought about moving here, but it's something that's stuck in my mind. I suppose I might have difficulty considering it to be a very good restaurant because of that; and as a night club I don't really care for it.

I've thought about coming here quite a few times, but this is one of those places that closes at 2pm for lunch, and I always seem to be running late. I knew that they closed early, but since they don't have their hours on their web site I didn't know it was so early; last week a scheduled 2pm lunch had to be moved to Tarpon Bend. But today I got out a bit early.

I thought about sitting outside as it wasn't as sweltering as usual, but when I went inside and felt the AC I changed my mind. There's no hostess during the day, with only a few tables occupied. I hovered for awhile until a server came out and told me I could sit anywhere.

The decor is sort of mid 1990s; it looks like it was a really cool place 15 years ago. Unfortunately, it doesn't really measure up to modern decor. There are roughly painted walls, some large paintings and ceiling fans, with some lacquered wood tables; mine had a big gouge in it.

Sidebar inside

They try to pass this place off as Farm-to-table, but I have my suspicions. They lost their long-time chef recently who opened Max's Harvest in Delray, so it's not clear what the impact of that is. But the menu didn't thrill me; I wasn't going to pay $14 for a hamburger, and although the calamari sounded good; I wasn't looking for an appetizer. So I ordered the Hanger Steak Frites, medium rare. I also ordered a sparkling water; they have Saratoga here. When he brought out the water he again asked how I wanted the steak; I made sure he got it right.

While I'm waiting the server brings out a steak knife, so now my table has only a rollup and a knife. No bread, no shakers, no candle, no flour. This is not a fancy place.

Considering by now I was the only one in the place, I thought it took an awfully long time to cook a skinny steak. Hanger steaks are similar to skirt steaks, so they cook pretty quickly. Finally he brought it out.

Sidebar steak

I was wondering why it was the same price as a hamburger; it's a pretty small portion. I thought it looked a bit rare, but I wasn't going to send it back. It was even rarer underneath; this would be undercooked if I'd ordered it rare.

My server asked if I needed some ketchup, at which time I realized that there was no salt or pepper. The Saratoga was also served warm with no ice, so I asked for some of that as well. It seems that everything is optional here.

The dish includes a garlic aioli, which was ok but not particularly amazing. The fries were pretty ordinary. I love hanger steak, and about half of this small portion was good, but the raw parts ruined the experience. As I was eating this, I was thinking about what happened here. First, the chef cut the steak before plating it. So the chef should have seen that it was too rare; the server could also have noticed when he was bringing it out that it wasn't cooked to order. So we have 2 employees who either didn't notice that they were serving me raw meat, or who don't have any idea what medium rare is.

It's interesting, you go to their web site and you see all kinds of fancy dishes and presentation, but the restaurant itself is nothing like that. You can just tell by the way they set up a table that they really couldn't care less about your dining experience.

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Petrillo trying to sell this place for $3.5M. The listing says "100% leased"; did someone take this space?

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