Bonefish Grill — Restaurant in Virginia

Service:

We sat on the bar side, and during off hours (approx. 2pm) so we were served by the bartender. They were friendly and did a good job keeping drinks filled and taking our order on a timely manner.

Food:

The Free bread and pesto olive oil dip was very tasty. The bread is ridiculously good.

Appetizer:

We ordered the pot stickers for an app. The pot stickers were good but the sauce was a bit salty. It balanced reasonably well with the other items on the plate but a slight reduction in the salt level would make it better.

Entree:

My wife ordered the grilled rainbow trout with a side of asparagus and the corn and crab chowder.

The trout was cooked well and seasoned reasonably well. The asparagus was cook well but wasn't spectacular in terms of execution.

The corn crab chowder was ...... well odd. The base was obviously canned and had that canned kinda tastes like nothing but salt, but there was something in it that had an odd flavor profile. I couldn't place what it was. There was a hint of bacon flavor. There was an almost laughably small.amount of crab in the crab chowder, Ditto for the corn. For it being a corn and crab chowder, they weren't the stars of the dish. I'd recommend passing on it.

I ordered the blackened shrimp tacos and the bacon mac as a side. The shrimp tacos were not blackened, but rather used a blackened seasoning, which is not what I was expecting but weren't terrible. They were a touch on the bland side as the other ingredients on the taco weren't really seasoned in any capacity. The tacos overall were okay, but the mashup was a strange combination that may have worked better with better seasoning.

The bacon mac and cheese was your standard restaurant mass produced cheese sauce with bacon on top. It wasn't anything to write home about, and I would pass on it.

Our son ordered the kids fish sticks. They are just regular old mass produced battered fish. Nothing special there. He ordered a side of the cole slaw and it was both under seasoned and under dressed.

Dessert:

We ordered a deconstructed brownie dessert as my wife doesn't like icecream on the brownie, and we were sure about the raspberry syrup they put on it. The brownies is your typical restaurant brownie. The icecream was equivalent to entry to mid level store bought vanilla icecream (that is to say nothing special). The whipped cream appeared to be real whipped cream (not scratch made) and not that hydrogenated fat substitute that you often see in stores. The raspberry sauce was a very sweet processed raspberry sauce. It's not our cup of tea. The flavor wasn't bad, but it definitely had some artificial flavors in it.

Overall, I'd give it a 3. The cooking techniques were reasonably executed but nothing special. From an ingredient standpoint, they were again, nothing special. One of our friends ranted and raved about this place, so I was a bit disappointed.

If you are a person who cooks from scratch on the regular and knows more than just the basics of cooking, this will be so/so / disappointing. If you are a person who eats processed foods on the regular or eats out regularly at places that uses pre-prepared or processed ingredients, you'll likely rate this a 4 or so and would reasonably enjoy it. Idk which camp you fall into, but everything on this menu could have been executed way better for the price.

We don't plan on going back but wouldn't necessarily turn down if we were invited to go out with others. Take from that...

I don't do many chain type restaurants in the city but when you are in suburbia it seems like that is all there is. BoneFish is a popular restaurant in the neighborhood so we decided to try it.

6pm - Saturday night and it was packed. There was a line of people waiting. We were given one of those square blinking lights gadget standard with a lot of the chain restaurants.

It was nice they had servers going around with tasting while the people waited. Nice touch.

6:45pm- Gadget lights up. The hostess said it would just take a few minutes as our table was getting ready.

7:00pm - Seated and a very friendly server went through the menu with us. We started with the Cerviche and Singapore Calamari. I would have to say the cerviche had a nice tartness and was pretty good. The calamari was a bit over fried and I didn't really like the sweet dipping sauce that came with it.

7:30pm - The entrees came out, the Fish and Chips, the grilled scallops and shrimp and grilled Grouper. All the seafood that came out seem fresh. The sauces that were recommended to try was also okay. I don't know if it really added any flavor to the dishes. I've had better Fish & Chips. Everything was cooked nicely and it tasted perfectly fine. It tasted like a chain restaurant pumping out food. The standards were good but not very exciting. It wasn't a bad meal but then it wasn't a memorable meal.

8:30pm - We decided to skip desert and asked for the bill.

8:45pm - Out the door. While the service was exemplary and the food fresh but middling. It follows the tried and true formula of chain restaurants. Consistent food and service but what it lacks...

Visited on a Sunday evening after getting a craving for seafood. Bar area was quiet with ample seating, although some plates from prior customers were still at a few otherwise empty seats. This place appears to be appealing to local regulars, families, and older couples from what I saw this visit. I settled on ordering a mule for a drink, the crab cake appetizer, the house salad with salmon, the trout with vegetable and asparagus, and a piece of cheesecake. The drink came promptly and tasted as expected even if a little heavy with the ice. The crab cakes had good balance of meat to binder and good seasoning but felt texturally soft without the crispiness at the bottom or the top. The remoulade had a nice bright taste. The salad looked and felt fresh with lightly dressed and balanced ingredients. The salmon had an appealing look, good char, and good cook throughout. (I wonder whether they could consider cooking at temperatures other than medium for patrons like me.) The trout was well seasoned but dry. The sauce had an odd taste that led me to leave it off the fish entirely. The vegetables were well cooked and not over cooked. Cheesecake tasted fine as did the accompanying raspberry sauce. Some whipped cream would have been a welcome garnish. Service was more attentive than not, and my server made sure my order was placed correctly which I appreciated. Bill totaled just under $70 before tax and tip, so I am not sure if I felt the value with this experience. I suppose I could return and focus on the salmon and the salad and veggies for a quick dinner if I were in the...