On Friday night, we decided to head across the bay for a change and visit downtown St. Pete. We decided on having dinner at Dan Marino's Fine Food & Spirits in BayWalk. We had eaten or had drinks at Dan Marino's a few times before, but hadn't been back in maybe a year. Previous visits had been positive
, but not the kind of knock-out experiences where we were in a rush to return.
When we arrived last Friday night we were told that there was about a 20 minute wait for a table. Being impatient, we checked out the bar area of the restaurant, found an open high-top table, and sat down. Next, we watched two servers walk past us and not say hello or offer us a menu. After several minutes, one of these servers finally returned, took our drinks orders and offered us menus.
For a starter, we ordered a spinach and three cheese dip with tortillas. For my main course, I went with a grilled steak salad and Traci picked a turkey burger. The spinach dip was tasty and my salad was solid (nice slices of steak). As for Traci's burger, it was Asian themed and came with a dipping sauce she didn't like and an Asian salad on top of the burger that she wasn't a fan of either. I had a few bites and thought the burger, once it was stripped of Asian accouterments, was pretty good.
As we began our meal, the guy at the table next to us returned his order of "Dan's Meatloaf", saying that that it tasted like "a pack of spices from the grocery store that hadn't been mixed well." Fortunately, our meal wasn't that bad, but overall it was a mediocre experience. Service was lackluster and the meal was just average. I realize that, by choosing to sit in the bar area instead of the dining area, we didn't get the full experience (we've done this before and the service was better). Still, our latest visit to Dan Marino's was a reminder of why we tend to avoid eating at BayWalk. I still think Dan Marino's, particularly the outside balcony area, is a good spot for drinks.
There are other Dan Marino's restaurant locations in Las Vegas and Miami, with the Orlando location scheduled to reportedly re-open in "mid 2007." The original Dan Marino's locations in Coral Springs and Fort Lauderdale both apparently closed. The St. Pete location appears to do pretty good business, but one never knows. It's unclear to me how involved (or uninvolved) the Hall of Fame quarterback and NutriSystem pitchman is these days in the restaurants that bear his name.
The Dan Marino's St. Pete location also came in fairly average on its last health inspection report.
As for BayWalk, the food selection on the second floor besides Marino's includes: a location of TooJay's Deli (a generally good lunch choice), Gratzzi's (an Italian place that I've never heard much about), Tokyo Sushi Cafe (went once and thought it was okay). There is a new little Italian place downstairs with pizzas and salads (we stopped after dinner there Friday night for gelato) and a Johnny Rockets location is still next to it. Finally, Dish, a sort of make-you-own stir fry restaurant concept that I could never get into, closed its BayWalk and Centro Ybor locations recently.
Bottom-line: Dan Marino's at BayWalk is a good choice for drinks and appetizers, particularly if you can sit in the outside balcony area. As for dinner, there's better choices in downtown St. Pete.
Inspection Scorecard: Last Inspection: March 2007 violations - Critical (7), Non-Critical (0).
