Dakota's On The Cove — Restaurant in New York

The atmosphere was very nice, there were new ultra suede chairs and a beautiful sunroom, it was casual view of the bridge to queens & sailboats.We ordered two drinks, which tasted good & had a generous amount of alcohol. Our food came quickly & they gave us cold water immediately. We were served by the bartender.I'm assuming the waitstaff, 3 waitresses were late...and so he was doing their job. The first issue, we made reservations online for 12pm..when we got to the restaurant, were told they didn't open till 12:30pm, why could you make reservations when it wasn't open? We sat down and ordered drinks...I ordered the espresso martini served in a oval champagne glass, and my friend ordered a margarita , I think she wanted a regular one, but it was served on the rocks, no salt and in a short tumbler, with a dried piece of apple, so thick you could break a tooth on it. I am from Texas, margaritas are usually frozen and served in a margarita glass, Also they usually ask you if you would like salt on the rim. There was no salt. Also a true margarita would be just more liquid. These drinks were 18$ each. Which is steep, my friend said with the drinks they could have brought nuts to the table. & thought the glass size was an excuse to half the amount. I had the fried chicken sandwich and fries, 19$ and my friend ordered the crab-cakes $27. When they came, her salad was dry & huge, it looked like a whole bag of spring greens & there were two small crab cakes, with five penny sized lemon flavored dots of sauce. There was no salad dressing a no tartar sauce, She told me the crab-cakes were burned on the outside, I tried them, just ok, she later said they tasted fresh from the freezer, and she was not certain they were actually crab, but fish...they were, in fact dark brown and charred on the outside...and it did seem, they had been frozen then put into a pan and cooked too quickly. Mine was really good except for one thing, the chipotle mayo was almost absent, I nearly choked trying to take a bite of a very dry fried chicken sandwich. When I opened the bun, a regular hamburger bun, there was literally a teaspoon of chipotle mayo on it. The fries were great & seasoned well. So we informed the bartender-there was no dressing for her salad, &I needed more mayo. Then the manager came by. He asked how things were, we told him, he asked her what kind of dressing she wanted, & she also told him the crab cakes were burned. He offered her another, & brought one more, Which was good bc for $27 she later told me it was not enough food for that price. The new crab cake, however was about as burned as the previous. She still ate it. When the bartender brought her dressing it was what looked like olive oil...the manager had asked her what she wanted and she said blue cheese, again, they brought her something creamy. They also brought me a demitasse cup with chipotle mayo...that definitely helped, it was good. Also, the bartender kept checking on us multiple times, my friend said she felt pressured to leave. That he was rushing us. That was weird bc there were no other customers but a family besides us. Anyway as we were eating he gave us two small complimentary glasses of a pineapple tequila house made. I did not like it. And gave it to my friend. I'm not sure they were trying to impress us, or promote the drink...anyhow if they wanted to impress us almost anything else would have been better. I was also very surprised that nowhere on the menu did they serve lattes, or cappuccinos..espresso yes. After the meal, my friend suggested we go elsewhere for coffee and dessert. She felt it was overpriced & did not want to pay for overpriced dessert or coffee. Also I think the experience of getting normal things like mayo and dressing, just turned her off. Unfortunately we will probably not return. I don't know who was cooking, but it was definitely not a chef. The food just wasn't that great, especially...

Dinner at this place was definitely not a good experience for us and the evening was a big disappointment. We ate the food our plates instead of sending it back because we were so hungry due to skipping lunch and also learned from past experience to never send food back to the kitchen when dining at a restaurant. To start things off, they don’t even put basic bread/butter/olive oil on the table for the customers. We didn’t bother ordering any appetizers because we saw how small the portion sizes of the appetizers were that were given to the other tables (literally $7 for garlic parmesan bread sticks that would have looked more appetizing coming out of a take out pizzeria’s oven and $18 for 4 pieces of coconut shrimp which is insane). One entree that was ordered was “seared salmon” (without the citrus sauce) substituting double potatoes instead of vegetables. The other entree that was ordered was “romano crusted chicken + penne”. The salmon was overcooked/dry (see close up picture) and tasted like it was previously frozen/pre-packaged. No additional potatoes were given even though I did not get any vegetables on the plate (see picture of receipt showing no vegetables but “conveniently” leaving out the note for extra potatoes). The chicken was overly fried to the point where certain parts of the cutlet, especially the edges, were extra dark brown and greasy (see close up picture of the oil was still soaked onto the meat and also oozing onto the plate). Linguine was given on the plate instead of penne which is not appropriate since the menu clearly used the word “penne” which obviously shows that the chef can’t even follow basic directions. There was barely any tomato sauce on the plate (see picture) and it was not even sautéed onto the pasta. The pasta itself seems to have been already pre-made and tossed into a pot of boiling water for a few seconds in order to be served because some parts of it were hard as a rock, other parts of it were al dente, and other parts of it were mushy (see close up picture of the different shades/colors/textures). The parmesan cheese was stale/lacking flavor. Seeing how bad the entrees were discouraged me from even looking at the dessert menu. I personally don’t see how people could actually like this place when there is a plethora of restaurants nearby on Tremont Avenue which serve delicious ethnic and/or fine dining food and all of the waterfront restaurants on City Island have much better views combined with some of the best quality fresh seafood imaginable. Perhaps the restaurant could potentially be more successful if the owners of this place actually get to know the community as well as the people that live there because the southern part of Throgs Neck is a salt-of-the-earth kind of neighborhood in the Bronx in which the majority of families in the area have lived for generations; not a gentrified section of Brooklyn where people constantly look the latest trends nor an old money section of Long Island that focuses on prestige. Posh decor with a good view is no substitute for quality food that is made to order combined with generous portion sizes. With the exception of the new construction/design, this place doesn’t compare in any way to the previous restaurant (Ice House Cafe) that used to be located in this exact spot and was forced to close its doors.

Updated review…

I figured that since months have passed I would give this place another chance and see if there is a difference and the reality is that it’s now worse. Ordered a medium rare steak to go and they cooked it between medium well to well done (see photos). Some of the steak isn’t even meat; just chunks of cooked fat. Seriously… the incompetence of this restaurant is...

I so badly want to love this place. It’s beautifully redone. The atmosphere is enchanting and the service is spectacular. I would love to see it be a popular neighborhood restaurant.

We have been here twice and both times the food is just slightly missing something. We have tried the fried calamari and they were good, not tough, but not really great. I had the fried chicken sandwich and it was a little under-seasoned, the fries are okay, I didn’t ask but they taste like maybe frozen. I am not opposed to frozen fries refried in oil but all together for what you pay for a chicken sandwich and fries it is not what you expect. We also had the Dakota salad with the lime vinaigrette and again the dressing was missing a lot of seasoning. It just tasted like lettuce and cucumbers and could really be saved by some decent seasoning in the dressing. The fish sandwich was similar. Fried nicely but no seasoning and no real flavor. It was not saved by the tartar sauce and the tomato and lettuce made the sandwich mushy. The clam chowder was seasoned nicely but so thick it was like eating a rue straight. The chicken on the grilled chicken sandwich was actually very tasty but the rest of the sandwich was lacking. Absolutely no disrespect to the chef or owners, the food is good, just not really quite there. And they really need to put salt and pepper on the table so you can adjust the seasoning where needed. The steak was well cooked, the rest was underwhelming.

The service, the effort, and the heart is there. I love the renovations and they really have a lovely restaurant I just think they need to work on really seasoning the food and...