28 North Gastropub & Scratch Kitchen — Restaurant in Florida

28 North Gastropub- Viera, FL- 5 Stars

“A man of such obvious and exemplary charm must be a liar.” – Anita Brookner

It has been my experience in life that one does not need to be told the obvious. If one is, the one telling is most certainly misinformed if not telling an untruth. I have also found that this is applicable to the food industry. If you have the definition of the type of restaurant in your name, not as a suffix, i.e. Grill/Sushi Bar., etc. it is probably a sham of a facade of the aforementioned claim. However, this was not my only thought as 28 North Gastropub illumined the face of the random name generator indicating it as my next reviewed destination. I would be remiss if I failed to mention the fact that the owner, Chris Coneen, and I go back to school age, and to say we don't see eye to eye would be the understatement of the year. I mention this so that readers far and wide can see that my food reviews are as advertised: fair, unfettered, objective commentary on the art of execution period. Not waitstaff personality or competence, though I may mention them, not interior design or cleanliness, though, again, they may be mentioned, and I certainly do not give a flying rat's behind about the owner other than his/her commitment to their chosen trade. With that in black and white, let us begin our exploration of the above-mentioned self-described eatery, 28 North Gastropub. (They even provided us with the location).

The interior is faux industrial and would be considered trendy for the area had I been a commentator for an interior design blog. It was clean, open, well lit and exuded a welcoming vibe. I was shown to a table, handed a menu and left to my own ruminations.

Soon enough, Kelly approached introduced herself and asked if I was ready to order. Kelly was extremely charming and exceedingly knowledgeable on the menu, both kitchen and bar. I found the menu to be eclectic and diverse. I ordered a Pineapple-hibiscus “mock-tail”, Scallops and Crab with Yuzu beurre blanc. I requested an extra beurre blanc on the side and the Char Sui Pork Belly. Kelly did not believe the chef would accommodate my request even with an offer to pay extra.

Kelly was back in a flash with my drink and our order. The drink was refreshing and lovely with simple flavor combinations that rest pleasingly in your mouth. The scallops were cooked perfectly and the crab was light, fluffy, bursting with sweet crabbiness and the perfect balance to the heaviness of the reconstructed fried rice. All in all this dish was extraordinarily delectable and quite difficult to stop consuming. However, I forced myself to turn my culinary tools to the next plate of the Char Sui Pork Belly.

The pork belly was cooked in an Asian style which made it chewier than a standard preparation. The star here is the sauce. Tangy broccolini literally melts on your tongue as your taste buds slide off into a gastronomical coma. I only found a few minor issues and those I attribute to taste, not execution. The atmosphere, service, prep, presentation and food are worthy of a 5 Star Top 5 Placement on any food critic's list.

The Big Boy says, “If you love gastro adventures into the land of excellence, 28 North Gastropub should be in your GPS. #bigboydiningout...

I’m sure the owner or manager is going to respond to my review like they have to many other unfavorable reviews… that a majority of their reviews demonstrate they take great pride in their product and service, and my review will not be in the norm…. With that being said… I’ll leave my unfavorable review.

We were going to see a movie, and my husband picked this place out to try prior to seeing the movie. He was quite excited about it, and even knew exactly what he was going to order. He apologized afterwards.

I’m kindly giving it 3 stars because he did enjoy his crafted cocktail and the server was nice… beyond that I don’t have a lot of positive to say.

We ordered a Munchable - chicken fried steak fries… It was the most inconsistent temperature food I’ve ever had. One bite would be warm, another cold, and one more hot. One fry would be hot, one would be cold.. it literally made no sense. We had the server come over, she apologized and said she would get us another. What was disappointing, was she didn’t think to clear our little plates we had of the appetizer she was taking away. Someone else brought us another one, and they started to walk away… I asked them if they could please bring us new plates… while initially it seemed like the new one was going to be much better, as the first bite was hot… it was the same inconsistent temperatures digging into it, we left about half of it.

Next, we both ordered the fish and chips. Fries were completely Luke warm or cold. The fish was hot but was so salty I could feel my ankles swelling (obviously I’m exaggerating) I tried to get past it by dumping all the tarter sauce on it, but I just couldn’t manage it. I didn’t even finish half the fish and ate 3 fries. And the wood boards the serve the food on are a joke… trying to cut through the fish, fries dumped off the board onto the table.

I also don’t understand serving drinks without ice… I did receive some when asking for it.

The check came and I think my jaw hit the floor. It’s completely unacceptable to have an establishment add a 20% gratuity on a two top table, and not have it posted anywhere on their menu that they do this. I was in the service industry for years… so I know tips are important to the servers and I know kitchen issues are not the fault of the server. However, I want to make the decision if I received proper If service or not. Our food, drinks, and service were definitely not worth the $128 tab today - which we have no issue paying, when all the...

This was our second time going here as we wanted to try their $28 three course menu that is now being promoted via email if on their list. The service was friendly and nice but really got zero advice when asking for recommendations or when critiquing the food as we got each course. Our impressions on our last visit were that the food was way too expensive for what you got and over seasoned. The $28 was our reason to give this place a try again. In the first course, we tried the beet salad. It looked like nothing that was pictured in the photo emailed to us. It has mostly purple and orange beets that were not sweet at all. You got two dollops of goat cheese, a couple of pieces of lettuce, and some pistachios. It was OK, and possibly the best course, but needed more greens to balance it as the emailed photo showed. For the main course, my wife had the lamb ragu. It was served with a little bit of wide noodle on top. It tasted fine at first, but as soon as the noodles were done, the dish was way too peppered and salted to finish. Both of us were reminded of our first experience here. My fish and chips consisted of one thickly battered long tube shapped fish stick served over a small plate of double fried fries. The batter was so thick that it was difficult to cut and caused the fish to fly off the plate. The fish itself was dry and smelled very fishy. I could only eat half of it before getting nauseous. This was not fresh fish. I mentioned it to the waitress who smiled and just said sorry. The fries were decent, at least. On to desert. My wife had the flourless chocolate cake, which had two dollops of whipped cream. It was very rich and tasty. We took most of it to go to enjoy later. I had the bread pudding. This was served on a burning hot cast iron skillet, which I didn't realize and burned my arm on handle that grazed it. The bread pudding tasted fine but was ice cold on the top and burning hot on the bottom. Clearly, this was an example of plating and prep gone wrong. I took most of mine to go. To be honest, 40 seconds in the microwave the next day produced a warm, soft, and delicious bread pudding. Put that in a warm plate, and it would have been perfect. Our drinks were fine (sangria and a margarita). But overall, this locally sourced menu continues to have flaws with taste, seasoning, and execution. Even at just $28, it is not enough to drive over thirty minutes to have a mediocre meal. Sorry, we did give this place another try, but were left...