Nice atmosphere - good food
We ate here during the summer months and dined outside. Food was a bit pricey, but quality food and good service    [26 Jan 2006 13:18:45]

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     ­Anonymous   

Simmer, burn, and toss
when we entered the beautiful Simmer restaurant in Canton Ct's Shoppes, the first impression was spectacular. Although the restaurant design had little originality, it is laid out well if your desire is to "see and be seen". But we would find out very quickly that if your desire is to eat good food you probably should have gone elsewhere.
The hostess was very sweet and although she seemed new, she was attentive. The service overall was very good. But when the stale bread came it seemed a precursor to what was to come. But although good restaurant almost always start you out on the right foot, I was still going forward with an open mind.
We split a Spicy Tuna Roll app, and to be honest it tasted like something that Friendly's would server, except at three times the price. The Tuna was difficult to find and taste, and it was strewn over the plate like someone had dropped it before it reached our table. OK, this was getting serious, we're 0 for 2 now. I prayed that the mains would save our evening.
They didn't.
My companion had a dish that she just plain could not eat. It was "Stuffed Jumbo Shrimp", "colossal shrimp, blue crab & smoky bacon stuffing, herbed sherry butter"
I tasted it too to make sure she wasn't havng a bad palate day. I could not believe how mundane the shrimp was, almost like it was bad, and the crab stuff was inedible. I literally did NOT want to swallow it but, well, what can I say there were other dressed up people around so spitting it out on my plate was out. After she sent it back she opted for the chefs special, a mushroom ravioli that had so little taste she only ate one of two. We were polite and told the waitress it was fine but secretly watched others around us to see if it was only us they were serving horrible food! My dish was "Meatloaf Wellington", which I was almost certain I would enjoy. The crispy outer shell was delicious but unfortunately the meat was not.
It had been a long time since we had encountered such a bad evening at a restaurant, and I wanted so badly for this to be a quality restaurant that we could return to, as its so close to my home. But the dessert, which was actually acceptable, was not enough to justify a truly awful dinner that cost $175 for two, with tip.
   [05 Feb 2006 23:46:35]

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Recommended Dishes: none

     ­M. delucia   matt at NYRestaurantInsider dot com