This was our first visit to the Palm. It was a gift for hard work done on my husbands project at work. The food was good, but not so amazing that I would pay those prices again.
We went on a Sunday evening and had made reservations, but didn't need them. I was surprised at the ambiance. We had dressed up business casual as listed and we would have felt uncomfortable in anything less or anything more. We got sat at a table behind a pole. Not a great seat and surprised as the place was not busy the entire time we were there. It seemed like there were a lot of Sunday night family "regulars" there and we were the random walk-ins they wanted to hide behind the pole. I expected a little more classic and fancy than we found. The marker drawings of faces and families is what I would expect at an old pizza place. They just didn't quite mesh with the white linen and fake candles.
I've been to plenty of places with a similar atmosphere, especially for work dinners, so I had some basic expectations. We weren't really offered a wine list. The list was folded open and put on the table to show us the special 3 course meal deal, but no suggestion of wine or even clarification that it was the wine list behind the special list.
Our waiter was ok. He cut me off before I finished ordering and took a while to come back to take our dessert order. He wasn't impressive, let's just say that.
We started with the fried scallops on special that day. They were definitely fresh and cooked very well. The sauce that came with them was very mild and had less flavor than I expected. Then came the Caesar salad. Not the best I've had, but it is just a standard Caesar. It was nice that it was drenched in dressing like so many restaurants do. I had the filet mignon and my husband had the veal parmesan. The filet was cooked perfectly as ordered, but was nothing special. It wasn't the greatest filet I've ever had. I got the hollandaise sauce on the side for the filet. I don't think I would get it again. It wasn't a good pairing for flavor. My husband's veal was very large and covered in chunky sauce and mozzarella. It was probably the best veal parm he's ever had, but he probably wouldn't order it again. We got the au gratin potatoes as a side to share. They were the best part of the meal to me. Perfectly cooked potatoes in a dreamy cheese mixture, how can you go wrong? For dessert we had the creme brulee and bag of dough nuts. I had asked the waiter for a recommendation of the bag of dough nuts versus the 7 layer chocolate cake and got little response. The texture and consistency of the creme brulee was perfect, but the vanilla flavor in the description was lacking. We were expecting to see vanilla beans in the mixture, but it tasted more like an extract was used. The dough nuts were shaken in cinnamon and sugar and came with a raspberry and a chocolate sauce. The dough nuts were a very dense cake dough nut. There didn't seem to be much flavor on the inside of the dough nut and the cinnamon and sugar didn't really do it for me. The sauces were both cold. The chocolate sauce would have been a much better pairing if it were warm. I would not order the dough nuts again. I expected something much more fluffy and decadent.
Overall, the food was good, the service was ok, and the atmosphere was ok. If I were taken there for a work dinner or treated by someone again, I would go back. Maybe we just didn't order the best items, but I would not pay for it out of my pocket and it would not even be on the list if someone asked for a great place to go in the area. read more