Quality of Food Runs Gamut : Marriott Sea Grille’s Hard Sell Unappetizing
Restaurants, like any sort of business, exist to make profits. This is such a simple and obvious fact that no reasonable person could quarrel with it, or could even wish to dispute it.
But how those profits are made is a topic that is open to considerable discussion.
Some restaurants serve their guests nothing but the finest of everything, and include enough of a markup in their prices to ensure themselves a decent bottom line. Others, such as airport and stadium eateries, are content to serve nothing but the worst, but can do so because they enjoy a captive audience.
There is a third category of eatery, however, that treats its clients as so many ciphers in an equation. The food may or may not be good at these places, but in any case, guests are viewed as wallets that can and should be tapped for the maximum number of dollars--genuinely pleasing these guests is treated as quite a secondary consideration. Such restaurants employ marketing techniques to merchandise food; guests are encouraged to buy a certain number of items, so that the average check per person matches the figure that the restaurant finds desirable.
From all appearances, the Sea Grille at the new La Jolla Marriott falls into this third category.
The Sea Grille really cannot be examined without reference to its parent company, Marriott, which is one of the world’s largest hospitality corporations. In addition to operating scores of hotels, it also owns several fast food chains and various free-standing restaurants, and caters the meals served on a number of airlines. Marriott did not grow to its present size without paying a certain attention to quality, to be sure, but it is equally certain that it did not prosper without paying very close attention to the bottom line.
Two recent dinners at the Sea Grille started on a very irritating note because the servers obviously had been instructed to go out into the dining room and sell. On both occasions, the servers first attempted to sell a special appetizer, ceviche, which was not listed on the menu but which the kitchen evidently wished to unload; both servers pitched it with a spiel that varied little in wording. They also attempted to sell appetizers in general, and met with some success, because neither mentioned that the choice of soup or salad was included in the meal until after the appetizer order had been placed. This timing was important, because many guests have a limited appetite that precludes an appetizer when soup or salad is on the program. The seeming deliberateness of this approach may have been proved by the fact that the menu avoided mentioning that meals included this choice of soup or salad.
This may seem a small point, but consider that many of the items on the Sea Grille menu also are listed on the menu in the Orchids dining room, which is served by the same kitchen and which is described as the hotel’s “family style” restaurant. At Orchids, the dishes cost several dollars less (e.g., prime rib is $17.95 in the Sea Grille, but $12.95 at Orchids), so that the extravagant decor of the Sea Grille begins to look like just another marketing tool, in this case one that entices guests to pay more for the same meal by offering them more attractive surroundings.
There is more. Americans remain fairly devoted to meat and potatoes as a daily exercise in gastronomy, but at the Sea Grille, this devotion costs extra--$2 extra, that is, for either a baked potato or an order of fried red potatoes. While the plates contain more than enough food to satisfy the average appetite, thus obviating the need for a starch, many of us just can’t do without our daily spud. It seems calculatedly greedy to make us pay extra for it.
And then there is the restaurant’s odd reservations policy, which once again pays homage to the bottom line. Diners may not reserve tables between 7 and 8 p.m., and will not be seated during that hour, because, as an employee bluntly put it, the Sea Grille tries to “turn its tables twice.” This means that guests seated at 6 p.m. will probably be out by 8, thus making room for a second group at that hour; those seated at 7 p.m. should leave by 9 for the same reason. Apparently, folks arriving at the forbidden hour of 7:30 would just gum up the works. But since they are the ones paying the check, should not their desires and schedules take precedence over other considerations?
Enough about marketing. How is the food?
The cooking varies from dismally amateurish to really quite good. The menu justifies the restaurant’s name by offering several fresh fish selections, which may be had sauteed, broiled over mesquite, or “blackened” with spices in the pseudo-Cajun style. Meats play an equally important role on this menu, however, and among the choices are filet mignon with sauce bearnaise, roast duck in plum sauce, lamb chops, pork ribs in barbecue sauce, a choice of blackened chicken breast or New York strip steak, and a choice of veal chop or New York steak au poivre.
The seafood nachos appetizer seems geared to the Midwestern businessman who does not wish to return home without having tasted Mexican food but wants to dine in the familiar surroundings of his own hotel. The plate was cautious in its use of jalapeno peppers, generous with cheese and sour cream, and included chunks of seafood that may have been related to the shrimp and crab mentioned by the menu. Deep-fried artichoke hearts were easygoing and likable.
The salad one evening was based on brown, wilted lettuce, for which there was no excuse; another evening it was topped with a raspberry-orange dressing that seemed all too like a dessert sauce. One evening’s tomato soup boasted an excellent flavor and a suave texture, but a second visit’s cream of mushroom was so thick and heavy that it seemed to have been concocted by a scientist in search of a new recipe for glue. That these two soups issued from the same kitchen is somewhat amazing.
The steak au poivre came off quite well, the green peppercorns endowing the creamy sauce with a flavorful heat. (Interestingly, the same server who was so knowledgeable about ceviche thought the peppercorns were capers. Management has the responsibility to see that employees understand what they serve.) Blackened chicken breasts were generously served and tasty, the seasonings well-balanced and moderated, too, so that the heat did not overpower the taste buds. A plate of sauteed scallops met the tenderness test; the scallops were doused with a light butter sauce that gave them a pleasant, added flavor.
A guest who sampled a friend’s order of pork ribs in barbecue sauce asked, “Do you find that sauce inspiring?” The answer to his question was in the negative, and the ribs themselves, although relatively meaty and moist, had none of the succulence of those found at the better barbecue joints around town. But a serving of small lamb chops, simply broiled and then placed atop a mound of spinach and feta cheese, proved a rather interesting and successful plate. Various vegetables accompanied the entrees, and these in general were properly handled.
The $2 baked potato, however, arrived too cold to even soften the little pats of butter that had been slipped inside it. Fried red potatoes were ordered on both occasions, and both times arrived undercooked, thus rather hard and disagreeable.
The dessert selection offers both cakes and pastries catered by outside suppliers, plus a few homemade items. The house specialty, a chocolate-macadamia nut pie, should appeal to those who like very sweet and rich desserts.
SEA GRILLE
La Jolla Marriott hotel, 4240 La Jolla Village Drive, San Diego
587-1414
Credit cards accepted.
Dinner for two, with a glass of house wine each, tax and tip, $40 to $70.
