I recently visited The Ocean Club located in the Easton Towne Center and was left with the following impressions.

Atmosphere – For being located in a mall, I thought the setting and ambience were terrific except it was a Sunday night. Sunday night must be family night – even at the Ocean Club. We found ourselves sitting next to a table of six but it seemed like a table of 10. We were able to block that out and were greeted by a friendly and knowledgable waiter. Servers these days seem to want to give you way too much information. Restaurants must feel that information sells and that customers are illiterate. Or maybe, customers are more likely to order what’s recommended in order to get the idiot to shut up and serve the meal. Our waiter was knowledgable but not excessive in his need to impart information.

I, being a fan of shrimp cocktails and having had some extraordinary ones at The Granville Inn and at The Walker Station Steak House, decided to sample The Ocean Club’s offering which was entitled, the Colossal Shrimp Cocktail. I was a little hesitant at first given its hefty $14.00 price tag but what the heck – it wasn’t like anything was a bargain on the menu except maybe the tap water. It arrives a bit later. Presentation was excellent as it came in a container with dry ice at the bottom. So it was served up in its own billowy cloud. Given such an entrance, my expectations grew immensely. Imagine my disappointment when the three (that’s right just three although jumbo) shrimp were marginally fresh. In fact, they were somewhat stale. The cocktail sauce was just that, plain old cocktail sauce. $14 bucks pissed away. I was very disappointed. I wonder if there “featured starter – Colossal Shrimp Saute” was as colossal?

For the main course, I ordered the Salt n Pepper Tuna, with Forest Mushrooms & Green Peppercorn Sauce on the waiter’s recommendation at $24 a pop. Again, nice presentation but no punch. The tuna was decent but a little on the less than room temperature side. I didn’t get much of a salt and pepper flavor and the mushrooms/sauce combo was a bit overpowering for the tuna.

At this point, I didn’t think dessert would save the meal. So I ordered a glass of port at $12. Maybe I should have just cut my losses and left. Oh well, for a restaurant with such a fine reputation, I was left with a mediocre experience. Maybe I just hit it on the wrong night.

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