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Sarasota Herald Tribune
April 2001
Take-out warms a rainy night
by Lauren Davis Bayles
When I think of the Hillview Grill, the word
that pops to mind is "consistent", in food quality as
well as in service. I decided on a recent rainy night to find
out if that attention to quality would hold up in a take-out
order.
Our food was waiting, as promised, 25 minutes after the order
was placed. As I played cat's cradle with the loopy handles of
the plastic bags that help multiple Styrofoam containers,
wondering how I would negotiate the deluge making canals on
either side of Hillview Street, the man who had processed the
order pulled out an umbrella to help me to my car. It didn't
keep my sneakers dry, but it was a great touch and a good
indication that service is a priority.
I arrived home to find that one of our dining companions was
delayed, so the rest of us started on our salads.
The house salad was simple, but fresh and good…leaf lettuce,
baby greens, shredded carrot.
The Caesar salad, from the appetizer menu, was wonderful; fresh,
crisp romaine with homemade croutons, coated in a dressing with
the perfect zip, thanks to the hefty amounts of garlic, lemon
and good-quality Parmesan.
Our entrees had been steaming in their containers for about 20
minutes. The crab cakes ($7 for two), served with remoulade,
were a hit. The crunchy coating didn't suffer from the wait, as
I'd feared. The tardy one proclaimed them "very good",
but not as good as the ones in his hometown, Baltimore, where
apparently, crab cakes contain little more than crab meat. The
remoulade was tasty, but we all wished there had been more of
it.
The barbecue shrimp appetizer (&6) lived up to its billing:
"Not for the faint of heart!" We liked the spicy
flavor of the shrimp, but were puzzled by chunks of something we
couldn't at first identify. We realized after consulting the
menu that they were pieces of bread that had soaked up the beer
sauce in the container. I have a feeling it's a dish better
eaten at the restaurant, fresh and hot from the saute pan.
The bronzed grouper ($20), lightly blackened with a little brown
sugar, and Alaskan barbecue salmon ($16), both served with
seasoned rice, was excellent. We liked the black bean tomatillo
salsa served with the generous portion of fresh grouper. The
fresh salmon was perfectly charred on the outside and tender
inside, and the almonds and caramelized onions on top married
well with the sesame, soy and sherry in which the fish had been
marinated.
The Mediterranean shrimp ($16) was cooked with fresh tomatoes,
kalamata olives, herbs and feta, and served over linguine. While
the shrimp were tasty and perfectly cooked, the linguine was a
little bland. Flavor could have been a casualty of the delay in
serving the meal.
The only real disappointment of the evening was the filet mignon
($22), which our meat eater ordered medium rare but — despite
sitting in its closed container for 20 minutes — was on the
raw side of rare, even on the edges. The bearnaise compound
butter served with it was tasty.
We were all pleased with the perfectly cooked fresh green beans
and carrots that sere served with each entrée.
Because take-out is frequently associated with
"budget" I was surprised at the size of the bill.
Another time, I might be more wary of getting carried away by
the tempting menu, even though as we finished our meals, we
agreed that we had made a good choice for a rainy night.
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