Wednesday, April 29, 2009

City Restaurant Week: C.W. Harborside

EDITOR'S NOTE: City Restaurant Week continues through Saturday. Keep reading Second Helpings for more reviews. Staffers will be grabbing tables at all participating eateries.

Coming soon: Cafe Mezzanotte and Harry's Seafood Grill.

By BETSY PRICE

If bland food and odd flavor combinations are your bag, rush on down to C.W. Harborside for its City Restaurant Week specials.

There's the odd-tasting crab and corn chowder. And the overcooked pan-seared Atlantic salmon with a honey and dried currant glaze that fights it out with the gloppy lemon-flavored risotto on the side.

A much anticipated Pureland Premium Black Angus filet panini with grilled portobello mushrooms, onions and sharp provolone was sizeable, but not flavorful. And we generally expect sauteed spinach to not be primarily sauteed yellow squash with a few leaves of spinach thrown in. (But we gotta say, the squash was the best thing we had.)

I can't remember ever being this disappointed in a restaurant. I had been looking forward to going to C.W. Harborside, a Wilmington Riverfront eatery I've never been to, but also never heard anything bad about.

We dined late, arriving at 1 p.m., and perhaps the lateness of the hour contributed to our dismal dining. Did we just get leftovers while attention had already turned to dinner?

We were one of only three tables in the restaurant for the second half of the meal.

At least we had a cheerful, personable server in Tim.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Go Tim!

Anonymous said...

ouch! someone woke up mon the wrong side of the bed

Anonymous said...

C.W.H is an AWESOME restaurant. I was there with my family on Wednesday & the food was magnificant. Everything was fresh & flavorful. Nobody in our group had any complaints. The person who wrote this review must have been having a really bad day & decided to take it out on this restaurant. What a shame because this place is fantastic!

Anonymous said...

Yea someone must of woken up on the wrong side of the bed! That restaurant is awesome! The best place I have ever been to. I would recommend this place to anyone who wants to enjoy a very tastefully meal.

Anonymous said...

I ate there last week with a group of friends and the food was fantastic, service was great, and the location was perfect!

Anonymous said...

While I have driven by there a few times I have never eaten there... BUT I can guarantee the hag writing this doesnt know what good food is!

Anonymous said...

Boy somebody was having a bad day. I personally know the executive chef & can guarantee that his food is delicious and the flavor combinations are inspiring. Ms. Price's attack on C.W Harborside sounds to me like a personal or personnel issue. Give this restaurant a chance & you won't be disappointed.

Anonymous said...

I was told by a friend how so good the food was at C.W.H I went last night and it was awesome. Now I am telling another friend!! :)

Anonymous said...

I definitely think there is something wrong with this lady if she didn't like the food there. I have been there quite a few times and love the food!!! The chef is excellent I have had his food before when he worked at another restaurant and know that his cooking is excellent. I think that she has a definite vendetta against the restaurant and is taking it out on the chef. She definitely needs to judge the restaurant fairly and not just her column to vent her anger. So to everyone go to the restaurant eat the food and judge for yourself.

Anonymous said...

So I think all these people are right its a great restaurant with great food!! Everyone should try it and I promise you wont be disappointed. Its one of my favorite restaurants!!!

Anonymous said...

One person wrote all of those replies right? You know the NJ can see your ip address, right?

Anonymous said...

I work for AAA next door & all of us go to this restaurant. Needless to say this bad revew has had everyone talking because we love this place. The deck in the summer is the best part. The people, the music, the food, the staff-it's all we can do to wait until the end of the day to go there & relax. Sorry the food critic didn't like it but that's ok. We love it & that's all that matters.

Anonymous said...

OH geez the person who just wrote about the IP address, must of been the same lady who gave this review of the restaurant. Boy you're a winner!!!!

Anonymous said...

I think that they should get someone not pmsing to write another article on the place. Some who actually is a good food taster because there is no way the food could be bad at this restaurant its an awesome place.

Anonymous said...

what gives this so called lady the right to say anything about someone else cooking when she cant even cook her self i have ate her cooking and it tast like crap dont know how she got the job anyway what kind of training did she have for this job must be the soup kitchen down on front street before you say anything about someone you neen to learn to cook your self

wilmdr said...

Actually, this review was in line with pretty much every dining experience I and my friends have had there. We often visit the deck in the summer, but more because it's one of the few places in Wilmington where you can hang outside in the summer. We suffer the overpriced mediocre food for the sake of ambience. And, anyway, by the end of the night we've drunk enough that we pretty much don't care what the food tastes like. Not recommended for lunch or dinner. The other comments looks suspiciously uniform to me. Seriously, go try it out for yourself. But don't say you weren't warned.

Krista B said...

My husband and I got a babysitter on Friday night and actually went on a "date night". We started out at the Art Loop....and ended at the Delaware Center for Creative Arts. When we left, we decided to give CWH a try for a late dinner since we were so close and had never eaten there. Neither one of us chose anything on the "restaurant week menu". I am a light eater, so i chose two things off of the appetizer menu. Both were extremely flavorful and great portion sizes (I couldn't completely finish either one). My husband chose the jamaican jerk pork....it was not only flavorful but the portion size was huge (he took half of it home). Towards the end of dinner a DJ started to play in the bar area, so we headed over and started dancing. The waitress held our table so we could go back and forth between the bar and the restaurant. The food and the service was fabulous. Thanks to all at CWH!

Anonymous said...

My wife and I visited Harborside for the first time during restaurant week for dinner. We found the food flavorful, cooked to order and of reasonable proportion size. The service was friendly and the athmosphere conducive to a nice couple's night out. All in all an enjoyable experience. We plan on going back