For some months now there has been excitement building as plans were announced that Station 400 would be opening a second location in Lakewood Ranch. We have never been to the downtown location but we happy to hear that there would be a new restaurant in our neighborhood. Unfortunately, what we did not immediately realize is that this is another breakfast and lunch place. Frankly, we really do not get the whole concept of just serving breakfast and lunch but there are a bunch of these around here, including three here in Lakewood Ranch.
In the spirit of trying something new however, we decided to give it a shot for lunch and accordingly made our way there yesterday. Knowing that they have only been open for a very short period of time, we expected that some of the kinks would still be being worked out so we tried to keep that in mind.
As we entered, we were promptly greeted by the hostess. She was going to take us to a table along the windows facing Lakewood Ranch Blvd., but the one she thought was open was not ready. The only other option would have been one right by the door and so we opted to sit at the bar. This turned out to be a good move as it gave us the opportunity to notice some things that we would not have otherwise.
The menu is not extensive but does have a variety of selections.
We both decided to start with the smoked corn and crab chowder. This chowder was absolutely fantastic. You could definitely get the smokiness from the corn. In addition, generous amounts of bacon added depth to the dish. The potatoes were uniformly sized, unfortunately they were simply too small for this dish. The crab meat was quite tasty and there seemed to be ample amounts in each of our bowls. This chowder is served with a seasame coated crisp, which nice to look at had no real flavor other than seasame. This would have been a perfect dish, except for the fact that both of our bowls had thyme stems remaining (one was almost 3 inches long!).
Allison decided on the Curry Chicken Salad wrap with green apple, arugula, toasted almonds and melted brie served with a side of parmesan fries. This was a huge wrap, and she brought half of it home for later. This plate was well put together but there was a uniform look to it, without any real color to brighten the dish up. She thought that the taste was very good but was marred by an excessive amount of brie. She also could not find any of the toasted almonds. She reported that the fries were tasty but were very soggy. They appeared to have been baked as opposed to fried, but I cannot say exactly how they were prepared.
For the past couple of weeks, I have been on a fried green tomato kick and when I saw a Fried Green Tomato BLT on the menu I knew immediately what I was having. Served with crispy bacon, bibb lettuce, herb aioli and the aforementioned fried green tomatoes on a grain bread, this was a very tasty dish. I opted to have the tomato cucumber salad as a side. The tomatoes were fried perfectly, with just the right amount of breading and cooked so that there were not overly greasy. The bacon was likewise perfectly cooked. I would have like to had more of aioli on the sandwich, as it seemed hidden amongst the other flavors. The tomato cucumber salad was passable but there was too much balsamic vinegar and it was also topped with pureed olives which I do not care for.
So in the end we thougtht that the food we had was very good overall, with just some minor tweaks that we might would have liked to see. We both loved the chowder, and while I preferred my sandwich more than Allison liked her wrap neither of us was overly disappointed with our meal.
As I noted above, sitting at the bar afforded us the opportunity to notice a couple of things that did give us pause. The first is that there seemed to be quite a bit of uncertainty in the service. Again, we recognize that they have just been open for a very short while and expect as they get into a grove this will improve. The next thing that we saw was the potential for contamination of food preparation at the pick-up window. One person was checking each plate as it came up, and putting any final touches required before the server took it out. Unfortunately, I noticed that during a lull she decided to lay her cell phone down on the work surface while she was looking at it (e-mail, Facebook, etc?) Once finished she simply placed the cell phone behind the work surface but still in the midst of the prep area. And the quick wipe she did of the area where the phone was certainly did not clean the area very well. The last thing that we noticed, and really gave us pause, was that one of the chefs seemed to need to wipe his face with his arm and back of his wrist. While I do not think he ever really crossed the sanitary line (i.e., using his hand), he was disconcerted if you happened to notice it as we did.
So the bottom line is that there are definitely some growing pains that need to be overcome in service, presentation (no stems please!) and potential sanitary practice but the food was overall quite tasty. Assuming that the issues get resolved, we would likely eat lunch here again.
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