The food I had was very underwhelming, and I wasn’t a fan of the service. It started off with me making a Resy reservation for a table outside. I specifically had been waiting for the weather to shift before visiting this restaurant—finally, I had the evening free and it was forecasted to be a rainless 70 degrees (which came true; it was gorgeous outside). But at 11am the morning of, Rolo’s switches my reservation to indoor dining for no apparent reason. Are they not allowed to have tables outside anymore? It made no sense, and the lack of explanation rubbed me the wrong way. Then, at the table I order a “Panoma,” a non-alcoholic grapefruit drink. I misread the name as “Panama” (all these places with weird names; I totally thought it could be named after the country). But to make sure he knows what I’m talking about, I say, “Could I have the Panama, the nonalcoholic drink?” He says sure and then takes the drink menu. Then a couple minutes later, they give me a piña colada. They did switch out the drink after I said something, and ultimately it doesn’t matter, but it’s just annoying. There are only two or three nonalcoholic drinks on the menu—can’t you use some deductive reasoning to figure out that I switched an “o” with an “a” instead of ordering a piña colada, a drink with two more syllables than Panoma?
Wood-fired Polenta Bread (olive oil & flaky salt): decent bread, nothing special.
Cheesy Potato Croquettes: absolutely nuclear hot in the center. Burned the roof of my mouth pretty substantially. I cut the second one in half, left it out for a few minutes, and it was still inedibly hot. Did they microwave these? The fact that it was so incredibly hot in the center but practically cold to the touch makes me think it’s a possibility…
Double Cheeseburger (grilled onions, dijonnaise, pickled long hot): it’s fine. One of the better burgers I’ve had, but it didn’t blow me away (but no burger ever has). At least it is sensibly priced at $18 unlike other “limited availability” burgers at hip places. They didn’t ask me how I’d like it cooked which is totally fine since I figured they would just go for the normally recommended medium rare, but it was practically medium well. It still tasted good, just odd.
Panoma (a non-alcoholic Paloma)