Sticky Wicket - Restaurant Review

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Restaurants

Saturday, 14 November 2009 05:55

By Ricardo Pasccunini

You know that feeling you get when you walk into a restaurant that doesn’t suit you? Yes, that "I don’t like this place" feeling. Well, when I walked into The Sticky Wicket, it was nothing like that. It had a very comfortable feel, not hot or moist, but not freezing with A/C. The televisions gave a very modern edge to the more retro style, with the diamond shapes, funky décor and those untraditional yellows and greens.

Immediately upon entering, I was greeted by a nice waitress who led me to my table. Speaking of tables, The Sticky Wicket, a gourmet restaurant, actually has many fast-food styled tables, with benches leading right to the end of the table. This would later make cleaning up the dishes very difficult for the waitress, and also took away from the style and comfort of the place. Still, the soft cushions on the benches are more comfortable than many chairs I have sat in.

I must say, The Sticky Wicket sure did have a weird but interesting look. It was some strange mix between the retro 60’s and 70's style, today’s typical seating, and a futuristic look. The lamps and cooling vents ran right through the ceiling, visible to the customers. This was a very different approach, but it sure did look neat! Overall, I think that The Sticky Wicket was pretty well designed as far as looks go.

As I sat down, the waitress handed me the menu. The menu itself wasn’t particularly long, nor did it contain any particular theme or trend in its food. It contained Mexican dishes, like the quesadilla, but still had pastas, salads, burgers, and steaks. This variety made choosing very interesting, despite the rather small menu and limited choices. It seemed like one dish just wasn’t enough! So I ordered four.

To start off, the pumpkin soup. I’ve eaten pumpkin soups before, so I was quite expectant. The main course was loaded. I ordered the quesadilla, the pasta with seafood, and the 8oz Strip Loin. All three dishes have NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with the other, so it seemed like a good idea to put the chef to the test. The waitress didn’t take too long, and she was very nice and pleasant.

I must recommend my fellow hostess, Carol. She was kind, all smiles and laughs. The wine selection was not half bad, and most of the typical drinks, as well as some local juices were available. While I waited for the food, I had a little look around. I noticed that at the other end, there was a small “lounge". While I didn’t hang around, it did seem nice. The restaurant was almost empty, with about six tables occupied. This seemed odd. Surely, a restaurant like this should have more people.

The food arrived with good timing, and I must admit, the pumpkin soup was a job well done. While not a 4-5 star dish, it was almost perfectly thick, not watery like many soups, but not jello. The pumpkin really shone through, and with the perfect addition of salt, I was now ready for my three-dish main course. The pumpkin soup was rather small, so I didn’t know what to expect from the main courses. That is, until they arrived. First came the steak. That is, just the steak, with no steak knife. So the first dish was actually the pasta.

The seafood pasta was, well, seafood pasta. It didn’t have anything to set it apart from the rest. Cheese, noodles, shrimp, all the usual suspects. Still, it tasted good, and with that I moved to my quesadilla. The quesadilla, being a Mexican dish, is very distinctly spicy (supposed to be!). The quesadilla at the Wicket was great. The spicy and the tortilla and the cheese and the… sorry about that! It was rightly cooked, probably the best dish for the night. Now before I go on, I want to emphasize that I like steaks. And I mean, I LIKE them. I have eaten steak in some of the best restaurants, including Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill, Peter Luger Steakhouse, and others.

And while The Sticky Wicket isn’t a specialty meat or steak house, and the Strip Loin is impossible to compare to those places, it still was quite the treat. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I eat MEDIUM RARE! And I like it that way. So when I see a steak like this, with a pretty damn good tasting sauce cooked a rare-like pink, I don’t approve. Still, I could see that service here was ok, and only ok, and I should probably not wait for my steak to get cold before the waitress comes to see how I am doing...  Regardless of which, the seasoning was good, the cut fine. The mashed potato side dish really wasn’t that great. I found it to be lumpy, a little under-cooked, and lacking seasoning.

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