ABC Kitchen

I'm a huge Mercer Kitchen fan, so I expected ABC Kitchen to be a slam dunk. It's also one of those restaurants that has been on my MUST VISIT list for months. So I was extremely excited to get a last minute reservation there.

The menu has a huge selection of dishes (medium, small, really small), so I decided to order a bunch of small plates.

Our waitress didn't seem too happy that we just wanted several small plates, and not an "entree." Considering we ordered drinks along with 5 share plates, I thought her annoyance was unwarranted.

We ordered the meat & cheese plate, raw ahi tuna, portobello, roasted squash with hazelnuts, and french fries (because why not). The best things I had were:

1) My cocktail. It was a basil lime gimlet made with rum and fresh lime juice. Pretty incredible. 

2) Roasted squash. Honestly, I had a hard time figuring out which of the share plates were the best. They were all just "eh"

The portobello was good, but it was tiny. The rest of the dishes were waaay too small considering their price tag--especially the $17 meat and cheese plate. The meats were tasty, but the cheese variety was lacking as was the portion size.

Considering all the hype around this place, I expected some better food and a nicer waiter. At least the ambiance and drinks were good. 

Would I come back? Probably not. I'd rather go to Mercer Kitchen any day.