(Left: A real lobster roll. Alas, not the one I got at The Wharf.)
After the baked potato incident from last Sunday, I felt some guilt. I noticed that traffic was coming to my blog from people typing in "the wharf medford oregon" and of course what they were getting once they arriv
ed was an absurd story about a call I had with the hostess. I figured I had to give the place a chance, so I went there for dinner after work Wednesday night.
The Wharf is cute--you can tell that it used to be a pizza joint, but it's blue and white, has a sea mural on the wall, and looks sufficiently seafood shack-y. It also purports to be a seafood market, but the halibut in the case looked a bit worse for wear.
Anyway, we were seated quickly. I opened the menu and what do I see but an alarming notice:
Dinner available all day. Baked or mashed potatoes only available after 5.
(The true impact of this only makes sense if you read the baked potato incident--here is the link.)
Why this is, I have no idea and I felt ridiculous asking, so unfortunately I have failed in solving the baked potato mystery. However, I am willing to give a quick review of the restaurant, just for the hell of it.
First, let me say that to date, I've stayed away from doing true restaurant reviews on my blog, even though I am a huge foodie. There are several reasons for this. For one thing, although I am overjoyed that Ashland has good restaurants, there are few here that can really rival what I got in NYC even on an average day. My standards are high, and as a result, if I really were honest, the vast majority of my reviews would be pretty harsh. Another reason: restaurant reviewing is a real pain. Rather than just enjoying my meal and the company, it forces me to keep track of everything going on. I don't want eating to become work. I already have a job! All that said, I'm willing to share a brief review of The Wharf with you. Enjoy.
We ordered two Walkabout Worker's Pale Ales. This is a good local beer made by a coworker of mine and her husband. The glasses weren't chilled, but otherwise, A-OK.
Needless to say, I stayed away from the dinner options. Jeff ordered a fresh fish sandwich and I ordered a lobster roll. We had a cup of clam chowder and steamed mussels to start.
The steamed mussels were well scrubbed, plump, and soft. The white wine broth had too much butter (so much, in fact, that it prevented me from spooning it up like soup which I usually love to do), but it was still pretty good. The clam chowder was also fairly acceptable--creamy and tangy and not overly potatoed which usually results in a thick, starchy mess. At this point, I was feeling hopeful.
Then the entrees arrived. The fish sandwich was pretty good--beer battered cod with all the fixins. Nothing special, but fine. The steak fries were slightly underdone.
My lobster roll, however, was an absolute travesty. The top of a roll was hollowed out to make room for a few sad pieces of lobster in a cream sauce and parmesan on top that had obviously been put in the oven. Sort of like a bizarre lobster alfredo casserole in a roll-shaped bread bowl. This was certainly not the spartan lobster roll that I know--a buttered, toasted bun (usually a hot dog-shaped one) with huge chunks of soft lobster tossed in just a tad bit of mayo and lemon, sometimes with a small amount of fine diced celery and/or onion, but with the lobster always always as the star.
I picked out the lobster (at approx. $14, each bite was $3.50) and left the rest.
The waitress, who was fine btw, asked me, "How's the lobster roll?"
"Well, it's not really a lobster roll."
"Oh...are you from the east coast or something? We've never been. I don't really know what one really is." Ack!
I'm a bit of a purist about this kind of thing, so I was compelled to explain the virtues of a real lobster roll. She was really nice about it and even came back to tell me she let the chef know (for whatever good that will do).
My bill was $50. Pretty hefty, I'd say, although if my lobster roll had been good, I would have been OK paying that. The ambiance and service were fine for the kind of restaurant that it is. The food needs some work. Two Stars out of Four using the Southern Oregon curve. **
If I still lived in NYC, I probably wouldn't go back, but honestly, I'm fairly certain I'll end up trying it once more for lunch. The choices in Medford are pretty few and far between and Ashland is too far to go back to during the work week.
Want a real lobster roll in NYC? Try Mary's Fish Camp or Pearl Oyster Bar two of my faves.
