RtS: Manhattan Supper Club

[Ghoulish Delight]

Rank the Swank - Restaurants and Bars


Overall Swank Rank

Manhattan Supper Club
202 S. Main St.
Orange, CA
4/11/2008
http://manhattansupperclub.com/


The Lowdown
Superb main courses surrounded by bland decor and blander appetizers.

Food
Decor
Service

__________________________________________________

The Gig
Dinner

The Grub
Appetizer - Spinach and Ricotta Egrolls

CP - Butter lettuce salad w/citrus vinaigrette
Petite fillet w/peppercorn sauce
Glass of Rodney Strong Pinot Noir 2006

GD - Gruyere-stuffed pork chop
Side Car, up

Desert-Apple Crisp Tart

The Scene
When we moved in to our condo, there was a French restaurant a couple blocks away, La Brasserie. It was apparently at one time ranked as one the finest restaurants in the City of Orange. It closed before our first year here ended. I understand it had gone significantly down hill.

The location has been reborn, under the same ownership, as the Manhattan Supper Club. It's positioning itself as a high end steak and seafood restaurant, with a wine cellar and available-for-rent wine storage.

The end result is a mixed bag that left us ultimately disappointed.

Starting with the decor, we learned from our waiter that it was designed by the owner's wife. In short, it was terrible. The restaurant is divided into 5 areas: A large open bar, a strip of dining seating along the windows, a small dining room with a few tables, another dining room in kind of a half-story area, and a wine cellar with dining.

When the decor wasn't off-the-shelf bland it was painfully cheesy, from the zebra-stripes in the bar/lounge to the faux-stone walls of the wine cellar. Tacky tacky tacky.

The food did not start out well. Our appetizer, spinach and ricotta eggrolls, managed to somehow outbland the decor. I suppose they were going for "light flavor", what they ended up with was "unseasoned". Not even the red pepper balsamic vinaigrette (equally flavorless) could save it. And the consistency of the filling just wasn't firm enough to support an eggroll. And ironically, the greens on the plate were over-salted.

Fortunately, things got better from there. The butter lettuce salad, while a bit awkward to eat, was presented beautifully and the citrus dressing was light-touch done right.

CP's fillet was well seasoned and perfectly prepared. The peppecorn sauce was unoffensive, but nothing special. Fortunately it was unnecessary as the steak stood on its own.

My pork chop was out of sight delicious. Melted in my mouth, flavorful. By the time it arrived, I had actually forgotten about the gruyere filling. I was worried that, like the peppercorn sauce, the filling would just be pointless window dressing on an otherwise perfect plate. However, I found it a brilliant compliment, adding just the right amount of smokiness and richness to the bite.

Also served with my chop was what the menu called "gnochi". Take the name "gnochi" off and it's a great side dish. Looked nothing like gnochi, texture was nothing like gnochi. But, on its own if I didn't compare it to gnochi, it was actually a delicious potato dish.

The only complaint about my entree was the bit of broccoli on there that took me a moment to identify as it had been cooked into submission. Bleh.

We passed on their version of bananas foster (which included tempura-battered bananas) in favor of the interesting looking apple tart that the table next to us ordered. The "tart" was actually layered puff pastry, with a homemade vanilla bean ice cream. Excellent dish, and unique.

I give their sidecar a 7/10. 6/10 for composition (too heavy on the sweet&sour, like so many), an extra point for serving it up, sugar-rimmed. I'll overlook the lack of lemon slice.

Pretty unlikely we'll be heading back there. The food overall impressed us, but there are plenty of places with equally good food and far swankier environs. Even if they improve the eggrolls, if the zebra print is there to stay, I'm not.

As a side note, they need to higher better copy writers for their website.

Manhattan Supper Club is a classically inspired restaurant and lounge that places people, health, and the environment above profit.

Gee, I guess you'd better check it out soon if you're interested as that doesn't sound like a very sustainable business model.

At Manhattan Supper Club we try not to encapsulate our cuisine with tag lines or slogans best suited to our marketing interests. We believe that food should speak for itself...

You try. You fail. I'm pretty sure "food should speak for itself" fits squarely into the "tag lines or slogans" category. And, again, eschewing your marketing interests does not bode well for the longevity of your restaurant.