Blue Harbour
3 out of 5 stars
The Westin Tampa Waterside, 725 S. Harbour Island Blvd., Tampa. Appetizers: $8-$24; entrees: $17-$35; desserts: $3-$9; beer & wine: $4-$5; cocktails: $14-$15. 813-229-5038; westintampawaterside.com.
Hotel restaurants are a mixed bag. They range widely, from world-class to afterthought. As we leave the Harbour Island parking garage and ascend the Westin escalator to discover where Tampa’s Blue Harbour is located, I wonder aloud to my crew what we might encounter.
No signage announces the newly rebranded establishment. Indeed, as I write, the website still has photos and a menu from 725 South. I inquire at the registration desk, “Excuse me, please. I’m trying to locate Blue Harbour.”
I’m met by a blank stare.
“It’s the new name for 725 South,” I add as a helpful prompt.
“Oh, that’s really meant for breakfast service. But there’s a full menu at the bar.”
A sweeping gesture directs my eye toward a splendid modern area across the upper lobby.
There’s a long bar with stools like a platoon of soldiers standing at attention before a wall that alternates flat screens and mirrors. There are long high-top tables perfect for a gaggle of friends, as well as four-tops and banquettes.
We sneak in at the end of happy hour, and I’m lucky to get the best $7 Old Fashioned in town. Head bartender William Frost combines small-batch Redemption Bourbon, bitters and simple syrup. With a single, huge square ice cube, an ample slice of orange zest, and a lone dark cherry soaking up all the goodness, it’s supremely satisfying. I’m with wine drinkers, though, and the overwhelming emphasis here is on the multiple cocktail innovations. You won’t find a wine list, but the Trinity Oaks house selection, while unexciting, is fine at $4 a glass.
We decide to start with the aged Cheddar and ale fondue. It comes with an absolutely beautiful platter loaded with soft pretzel nuggets, Granny Smith apples, broccoli florets, and slices of pork sausage. The problem is that the cheese is not fully incorporated into the ale; there are several possible technical explanations why. The result, however, is a broken sauce that’s impossibly stringy instead of luxuriant and creamy. It’s got plenty of flavor, but it’s also impossible to dip without long strings of cheese rising from the bowl. We do our best, but are forced to leave half of the dish behind.
Far better (and easier to consume) is the iced seafood combination cocktail. The lovely platter presents two perfect tail-on jumbo shrimp, a pile of enticing lump crab meat, and four fresh, briny oysters on the half shell. Accents are a lemon wedge, red wine shallot mignonette, and some house-made cocktail sauce that’s well-balanced with the right amount of horseradish to awaken your taste buds. We devour it all with gleeful smiles.
The entrees are promising — with quality ingredients — but, alas, reflect unforced errors in the kitchen as well. A juicy filet of gulf black grouper sits on a bed of sweet pea risotto with a blend of roasted mushrooms and shallots. A second entree of tender pan-seared scallops and plain risotto features a vegetable sauté. In both cases, the risotto is flavorful yet overdone. The seductive creaminess of a perfect risotto has given way to stickiness, where the rice clumps instead of flows, and the promised lemon beurre blanc, that most scrumptious of French butter sauces, is missing from each plate. What could be outstanding is simply commonplace. Texture matters, and the acidity and lushness that a beurre blanc would add is much needed. A duo of well-conceived dishes are merely pleasant.
Our grilled ribeye arrives close to medium-well instead of medium-rare, but it’s a fine piece of beef well-served by a melted lump of herbal maître d’hôtel butter. The baked potato is fully loaded with no surprises for good or ill. Again, the result is ordinary instead of elevated.
Perhaps the most flavorful entree of the night is the pressed chicken “under a brick.” The meat is juicy, the skin is crisp, and there’s just enough pan jus to make it interesting. It comes with a side of truffle mac and cheese. The al dente penne pasta sits in a cast-iron rectangle shimmering in a creamy sauce with a hint of truffle oil. It’s an enjoyable combo.
Our two choices for dessert are absolutely delightful. A creamy scoop of salted caramel ice cream hugs a rectangle of moist cake alternating stripes of hazelnut and toffee. Then, there’s a quintessential piece of key lime pie that hits all the dreamed-of notes; it is the right texture and imparts perfect tartness on the tongue. And though the lemon crème anglaise listed on the sweets lineup is missing, it’s not really necessary. Blue Harbor has made a wise choice to skip an in-house pastry station in order to import these high-quality creations.
What are we to conclude? This newcomer provides an agreeable evening smack dab in the middle of the hotel restaurant continuum, with the relaxed service you should expect in a lobby bar-restaurant. It elevates cocktails — and provides opportunities for the kitchen to kick the food up a notch. However, minor failures of technique, so far, fail to provide the lift required for Blue Harbour to soar to its aspirational heights.
CL Food Critic Jon Palmer Claridge dines anonymously when reviewing. Check out the explanation of his rating system, or email him at food@creativeloafing.com.
