Maloney & Porcelli

Our party of 4 were the first customers on Saturday at noon, only to be seated by the door. Service was "cold" and slow. The food was awful. The burger seemed to have been heated up, and the Onion soup was tasteless even with its mystery chunks of meat. My first experience with meat in Onion Soup! A few years back we bought steak knives here and that will be the closest we will get to Maloney and Porcelli's. Too bad, we travel a great deal and would have enjoyed a reliable eatery!

I came here with three other people, all of whom ordered steaks of different kinds that looked really good to me. I got a wild hair and ordered a pot pie, which turned out to be mediocre at best. I'm sure I would have been quite pleased if I had just ordered a steak like my companions. If you come here, come with an appetite for steak and order one. You'll be satisfied. If you order anything else it's a crapshoot.

Although there is not much atmosphere to the place, the food and service made up for it. My husband and I arrived earlier than our reservation and they sat us anywhere we wanted. There were 3 waiters tending to our every need. All were very nice, helpful and well informed of the cuisine. We started with theopen faced soft shell crab po boy as an appetizer (it was the special of the day)-fabulous! Crispy crab on top of a huge garlic cheese crouton with dressing, some homemade coleslaw and some firey tasting pickles. Then it was on to our entrees-I has the halbut pan seared in a brown butter sauce with some cauliflower and minced cashews-delicious! My husband had the angry lobster-again delicious. A 5lb lobster split and cracked, sauteed in butter, ginger, basil, lemon and some spices for a kick. We chose hashbrowns for a side dish but the waiters also brought us some creamed spinach, I think they did this on a mistake but they told us, they wanted us to try it. And then the dessert, how could I forget-the baked alaska-TO DIE FOR! Vanilla and chocolate ice crean with a thin layer of passion fruit sorbet in the center covered with merengue and then baked. Tasted like a ice cream sundae with toasted marshmallow on top. It was also surrounded by some fresh fruit. The menu is not very large but the portions certainly are. And the dessert menu-each item sounded better than the last-they have a cart with the desserts on it so you can view them before you choose. This was my first trip to Maloney and Porcelli but certainly will not be my last.

This place is renowned for its wine selection which was evident when we opened the wine list and saw a $22-25 bottle of wine selling for $57 -- aside from the wine being overpriced (glasses were $12) the menu was reasonable and the prices reflected most steak houses I've visited. Good size steaks and crackling pork entree but like I said the food was good but it wasn't great.