Patria

So I decided to include restaurant reviews on my blog. I eat out a lot (more then I should, and if I go to a new place, I wanted to let everyone know how it is. So on Saturday night, Walter, a bunch of our friends and I went to Patria in Rahway for dinner and drinks. It is a new restaurant where El Bodegon used to be. It has been closed for about a year for renovations, so when it reopened as Patria, everyone was interested in checking it out.

When we walked in, it was huge, and trendy. We has a party of seven, and the hostess gave us a tour of all the "rooms" that we could choose to eat. There was the bar, the main dining room, a "club" room where the DJ would be later in the night, and a room downstairs with lower tables and couch like seating. We chose to eat there because it was quieter and looked so unique. They did a great job of renovating, and really transformed the restaurant. I wish I took pictures! We then ordered drinks - I got the watermelon mojito, which was fabulous! (If I knew at the time it was $12, I would never have ordered it!)

All the food on the menu looked great, aside from the fact that it was having a bit of an identity crisis (it had both Asian and Spanish options all over the menu). A friend and I got two meals to split – the skirt steak, and a shrimp dish. The meals came with a soup and one side, which were basically rice (fried, white, rice of the day, or beans). We were all shocked that you couldn’t get rice AND beans together. The soups came (I ordered butternut squash), I didn’t care for it at all – it tasted like they dumped ginger in the soup. Walter was nice enough to share his lobster bisque, which was better. Then the main courses came, and it didn’t get much better. Here are some of the opinions around the table:

·         The steak was WAY overcooked

·         The white rice was hard as a rock

·         The black beans came STRAIGHT from the can, and weren’t seasoned or heated

·         The scallops were awful

·         The fried rice was way too salty

·         The pork dish and shrimp were actually pretty good

All in all, we all decided we would not be returning for dinner. Ever. We then went into the club area for drinks to celebrate a friend’s birthday. The music was all over the place, the drinks were expensive, and I left early because I had a splitting headache. Walter stayed and later told me that the fire alarm went off and the fire department showed up, they had to start kicking people put since they were over capacity, and cars were getting towed because there was nowhere to park. So, I am glad we tried a new restaurant, but I will not be returning. I know it's bad that my first restaraunt review is so negative, but I know there will be many positive reviews in the future!