Establishment: Bonefish Mac's Sports Grille
Location: Lighthouse Point
Meal: Dinner
Drink: Guinness (and a water)
Appetizer: Crab'cargot
button mushroom caps in garlic butter
white wine sauce stuffed with [our] famous
crabcake mixture and topped with melted
Havarti and Mozzarella cheeses.
Main: Salmon BLT
blackened salmon fillet, bacon, lettuce, tomato and [our] tasty tarragon mayo on toasted foccacio bread
Side(s): Fresh (homemade) Potato Chips
Dessert: S'more Sundae
layers of graham crackers, chocolate ice cream, warm marshmallow sauce and hot fudge topped with mini-marshmallows and a fudge graham cookieServer: Lori
Giving credit where credit is due, this week's choice came about because a repeat of PBS' 'Check Please' was on Monday night and featured this particular establishment. And boy was that a gift to us. It's another one of those "local Florida chains" with four in the area, and it's not to be confused with the national chain Bonefish Grill (which ironically is right around the corner). To see how it's in the running for one of the best places in this series this year, take a look at how its score came together:
AMBIANCE: 10/10 (according to the aforementioned episode, the owners wanted to offer a place for everyone -- a game room for kids, a healthy beer selection for the guys, and many many salad choices for the ladies -- and they succeeded ... it's a big open plan with different sections [including one outside] ... and, being a sports grille, it's full of TV screens and other signage [including the fact that it's a Steelers bar, and as someone who grew up in central PA, that made me feel right at home])
FOOD: 9/10 (when it's as good as it was, it's even better when the portion sizes are supersized because that means there's even more of the goodness to go around ... from the very flavorful appetizer to the perfectly cooked salmon BLT [with an amped up mayo] to the side of homemade chips [also with a tasty dipping sauce] to that dessert [oh my that dessert], everything was delicious ... and I spied on every dish that passed by our table being delivered to others, and each one looked as mouth-watering as the next ... if there's a point to be lost, it's for the excess "grease" from the garlic butter white wine sauce/melted cheeses on the appetizer mushrooms)
SERVICE: 10/10 (our server set a new standard for excellence, and here's why -- every time she stopped by the table to check in, from beginning to end, it was as if we were just picking up on our ongoing conversation ... so casual yet also so proficient ... and although it was clearly busy, we never felt any of that stress ... she was knowledgeable and friendly and made a person feel happy to be there the whole time)
BACON: 10/10 (the interwebs say that there are 31 references to bacon on their menu ... 31! ... and you might not be able to see it from the picture since the bacon and the salmon had the same hue, but there was certainly no stinginess about putting it on my BLT ... I counted at least three, maybe FOUR long pieces)
BONUS: 10/10 (+3 for having tables that were on individual swinging platforms [even inside!], +3 for that s'mores sundae, +3 for the size of the portions of all of their dishes and +1 for being a place to which we will most definitely return because, after all, there are dozens of other dishes to be tried)
TroyScore: 49 out of 50 -- aka 98, the highest score granted in this series (this being only the second time that happened)
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