Restaurant Review: 1620 Savoy

We dined here this past Saturday night and we had a decent experience. We had a reservation for the casual side. I was initially a little disappointed in that after seeing the pictures of the beautiful dining room, but once we were there and seated, I was completely pleased with where we were sat. The main dining room felt very public. It was very bright, and just a little too formal. We had a corner booth, and other than the fact that it was FREEZING, it was a great location. It was dim & quite romantic...

Until the jazz band they had hired sat up less than a foot away from me... (I'm not exaggerating. I had to squeeze through the table and the drums to go to the bathroom. I know the place turns into a nightclub at 10:00, but this was 9:00, and my husband and I pretty much had to end our conversation once they started playing.

There were a few issues that kept the service from being excellent. Just little nit picky things, but when you're paying nearly $200 for dinner, you want and expect impeccable service.

#1 My husband was never brought a steak knife. I'm sorry, but when you order a $52 porterhouse, and ask for a steak knife, having to eat your steak with a butter knife because no one ever brings you a real knife is unacceptable.

#2 My water glass was completely empty twice.

#3 (And this is really nit picky) Everyone else I saw (I love people watching) had their checks brought to them on a silver platter. We were using a groupon and I handed the server my phone to get it off of before she brought us the check. When she brought me my check, she had it on a plastic Amex tray like you'll find at any chain restaurant.

While the service had a few flaws, the food was excellent. We both ordered house salads to start. They were simple mixed greens, with cucumber slices, some pickled red onion and a few thin slices of radish. They were quite good, and the herb vinaigrette was delicious.

\The raspberry sorbet as a palate cleanser was a nice touch.

Our main courses came out and my jaw dropped. I know at upscale restaurants portion size isn't that large, and honestly I expected an artistic presentation instead of a big plate of food, but I was completely stunned when they placed my dinner in front of me. I ordered the 1620 Scallops. It was 4 scallops. Now, if they were the huge, plump, perfect scallops at SO! that would be one thing. But they were not. Each scallop was about 1 cm in thickness. The description on the menu read this: "Sofrito, Jalapeno, Button Mushroom, Asparagus, Hollandaise Sauce " Besides the pathetic excuse for scallops, I had two-three small mushrooms, and two pieces of asparagus. My $7 house salad was more substantial that my $24 entree.

However, everything was delicious and perfectly cooked. The hollandaise was some of the best I've ever tasted.

Luckily my husband's porterhouse was much more substantial, because I had quite a few bites of his. The steak was flavorful, juicy and tender (it had to be, since he had to cut it with a butter knife). The mushrooms and the brussel sprouts were perfectly cooked, and the potato souffle was absolutely delicious.

For dessert we ordered some kind of cake. It was a basic vanilla cake, with a strawberry mousse and topped with a white chocolate ganache. This was delicious, but hard to eat. You couldn't cut into the white chocolate, so we peeled it off and ate it on it's own. The cake was decent, but the strawberry mousse was excellent.

I honestly don't think we'll be back here. We only have one more special occasion to celebrate while we're here, and I think we'll hang on to SO! as our special occasion spot. I'm glad we tried this place, but in my opinion the quality of the food doesn't match the price tag, and for our visit, the service didn't either. We have no problem spending over $100 on a nice dinner. We pretty much do it every time we go for sushi. But whenever we have an expensive sushi date or go crazy at Capers, we always leave completely satisfied, and unfortunately I didn't have that experience here.