[My ongoing series for 2016 continues ... with the THIRTY-FIRST of FIFTY tastes of FLORIDA (coming to you on sequential Thursdays. All. Year. Long.)!]
Establishment: Flip Flops Dockside Eatery
Location: Ft. Lauderdale
Meal: Late lunch (Early dinner?)
Drink: Guinness (and a water)
Appetizer: Smoked Fish Dip
served with toasted pita
Main: Baby Back Ribs
"famous" made in-house fall off the bone pork baby back ribs
Side(s): Fries and slaw
Dessert: n/a
Server: Rich
Website: http://www.flipflopsdocksideeatery.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flipflops.docksideeatery/
The more of these eateries I visit as a part of this ongoing series, the more I'm learning that time of day becomes a factor in the experience (which is why I'm glad I included the "meal" in the details from the start). Today's establishment is known for getting packed for special events ... and also when the Water Taxi unloads, seeing as how it appears that walking through the dining room is the only way to get off the dock ... so visiting it in the middle of a slow afternoon in the off-season might not be exactly representative of all that it has to offer. But all the same, to see how it hit its marks as "good" -- just not "outstanding" -- see these score details:
AMBIANCE: 8/10 (with marketing stating that it's a "Key West" vibe ... and with me and mine still not getting any further south than Key Largo ... I'm going have to assume that the open air pavilion style dining room right on the water [the Intercoastal] gets it right ... with a late afternoon DJ spinning pop tunes during the meal and lots of pretty bright colors and decorations [including a chair rail made of actual flip flops], it was a welcoming place ... a point lost because the DJ's tunes seemed to all be a minimum of five years old and a second one lost for the unfortunate smell of strong boat gasoline fumes that wafted over the dining room near the end of the meal)
FOOD: 8/10 (down here, you can judge how a meal will go based on the wow factor of their smoked fish dip ... and I can say that I really really liked the toasted pita ... which is the awkward to say that the dip was good [and smoky ... and with pickled jalapeno], but not outstanding ... but let me say for sure that the ribs indeed fell right off the bone as advertised and I'm happy when a kitchen isn't afraid to put a little salt on their fries [even if senior citizens need to keep an eye out to monitor their intake] ... a point lost for an underwhelming slaw with an odd aftertaste of "old" and a second one lost for having the stout Guinness instead of the draught bottle [really, we fans would pay a little more for that experience])
SERVICE: 9/10 (our server helped portray the laid back vibe ... which worked all the way up until the point at the very end where there was a too long wait for the check to arrive ... and then for that check to be picked up despite me having the card ready to pay, hence a point lost)
BACON: 10/10 (good news -- the menu has an item on it called "bring home the bacon", so this place understands that it's one of the key food groups ... and a review of the totality of the menu shows that bacon makes multiple appearances ... even though my meal didn't have any on it [maybe that's what the fish dip needed for some extra oomph?], this place gets all ten bacon points)
BONUS: 6/10 (+3 for the special that day [full rack of ribs for the price of half a rack] and +3 for the cute, albeit *giant*, well behaved st. bernard type dog that was allowed to be seated at the table behind us)
TroyScore: 41 out of 50 -- aka 82, a low B
No comments:
Post a Comment