NVM Review

By Warren Rojas

Food: 7.3 Ambiance: 7.6 Service: 7.4

“I’m not much of a wine connoisseur,” my obviously green server informs me when I fish for suggestions from Claiborne’s fairly straightforward wine list.

Nothing a few samples of primo wine can’t solve.

Things get somewhat testier another night when I catch a server and her customers commiserating about the dreadfully slow pacing of the meal (“We’re ready for our entrees now,” the couple states. “So am I,” fires back the clearly frustrated/embarrassed server).

Still, Claiborne’s keeps chugging along.

Fried oysters are exalted by zesty green goddess sauce (excellent herbiness). A mixed-seafood grill weaves together crab cake (lemony meat), sauteed shrimp (buttery) and broiled haddock with wild rice and pungent collard greens. Prime rib arrives awash in salty au jus, but devoid of the promised horseradish.

By Warren Rojas

Food: 7.0 Ambiance: 7.1 Service: 6.9

A welcome port for post-work revelers, The Dock appears to be a hands-down favorite among Lansdowne residents.

The restaurant originally built up a loyal following with its happy-hour specials (discount snacks, cut-rate martinis) and has since solidified its base with rotating nightly specials (pasta, prime rib, lobster).

Perhaps more importantly, staff stays alert when menu items seem to falter—as was the case when one server instinctively struck a half-eaten bisque from our bill “because it didn’t seem like it was up to par” (my guest later confided that it was a tad cold).

Fried shrimp arrive drizzled in tangy-fresh chili-lime sauce. Homemade crab cakes taste of jumbo lump, eggs and a touch of baked cheese (quite tasty). Grilled pork chops, on the other hand, are big, but terribly plain.

By Warren Rojas

Head out to sea with a bowl of tender mollusks ($8) swimming in a savory tomato-herb sauce decorated with grilled ciabatta quarters. Press on with a lightly charred-on-the-outside, tender-on-the-inside salmon steak ($13) propped up by a lush spinach-and-peppers risotto and tomato ragout (they call it tomato fondue).