My wife and I just made our first visit to Clary's. To say the least, it will be our last.To start with, the Caesar salad was one of the worst I have had. A very thin and acidic dressing accompanied the limp lettuce.
The server was rather inexperienced and awkward. We waited for a long time for our wine to arrive. When it did arrive the server apologized for the delay and said that the bartender had difficulty locating a corkscrew.
Next my steak was overcooked. The frites accompaniment to the steak (and were are not talking the classic French pomme frites) appeared to have been cooked ahead of time and them re-fried. This resulted in six (yes, just six) French fries with a mushy texture and almost unidentifiable taste. All this for the wallet-draining price of $26.00 (That is the lunch price. You will pay more at dinner).
The real shocker was my wife's Parmesan chicken which was overcooked to the point that the Parmesan crust was almost black. We sent the chicken back. When the dish returned from the kitchen, it had no crust on the bottom and the chicken was dry. It appears that the kitchen removed the burnt Parmesan crust from the chicken breast, then put a layer of crust only on the top of the chicken and put it under the broiler.
It is clear that James Clary is trying to live on his past reputation. He was present in the restaurant at the time. Clearly he has lost his passion for good food. To serve this kind of food is truly a sin. Clary's Restaurant is a reincarnation of his past fine dining restaurant (which he sold and which lasted less than a year under new ownership). Clary's is located in the former space of James Clary's failed restaurant called Fish.
Given the poor quality of the food we experienced, I predict the new Clary's Restaurant will go the way of Fish and die a timely death.
