Restaurant Review (The Derby)

The other night my wife and I had dinner at "The Derby".

www.thederbyarcadia.com


I was looking forward to it because Zagat had given it a "Very Good to Excellent" rating.

The restaurant is located in Arcadia, California just up from the Santa Anita racetrack.

The motif is horse racing and has a very old school look to it with dark wood, dimmed lighting, and Seabiscuit memorabilia.

The menu had a lot to choose from.

For the appetizer we had the French Onion Soup Gratinee.

This was terrific.  Served with traditional crouton crisp and Gruyere cheese.  Plus it was not overly salty like a lot of French Onion Soups are.  So far, so good.

For an entree I ordered the Prime Rib.  I know, no surprise to anyone who knows me, but hey, that's why they make Lipitor. The menu stated that it would be perfectly seasoned and slow roasted to juicy perfection and came with garlic mashed potatoes, string beans, au jus, and creamed horseradish.

Red meat and garlic mashed potatoes?  Yes, please.

I was served a 14 oz cut that was nicely plated and rare just like I ordered it.  Not much of a crust on the outside however.

Maybe I have a different idea on what is "perfectly seasoned" Prime Rib.  Many chefs use ingredients such as garlic powder, celery salt, onion powder, fennel, coriander, caraway, rosemary, and thyme.  All I could figure out was that that had used was salt and pepper.  I guess for the money I was expecting something out of the ordinary.  This wasn't.  Plus they apparently forgot to add any garlic to my garlic mashed potatoes.  Really?

My wife ordered the Alaskan Halibut Filet.  It was suppose to be pan broiled with a delicate tomato and caper Beurre Blanc sauce.

Again, a very nice presentation but no taste and dry beyond belief.  I had it sent back.  In place of it she ordered the mushroom ravioli but it wasn't anything to write home about.

Finally to desert. 

My wife ordered the "The Derby's Famous Baked Alaska" which had vanilla bean ice cream covered in raspberry meringue and served flambe.

Doing things flambe is always a crowd pleaser.  The ice cream was great but I didn't taste any raspberry in the meringue.

I had "The Derby's Famous Bread Pudding" with a warm whiskey sauce.

This was so good I wanted to lick the plate.


So all in all, a good start and a good finish... but everything in between was nothing to get excited about.  My suggestion is that you save your money and go elsewhere.