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Bonefish Grill, A Tampa-Based Seafood Chain With Nearly Twenty Area Locations


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In-laws are visiting for the 4th of July. They are not adventuresome eaters, everyone in the family gets car sick if we go more than 10-15 minutes from their hotel and in desperation we have taken them to Bonefish in the Kentlands twice now. They love it. So we're going again...

I, on the other hand, have yet to have an edible meal there.

Part of the problem is that I am frozen when it comes to ordering fish out. I can remember that Chilean Sea Bass is endangered or over-fished and not to order it and that wild salmon is good and farmed salmon is generally bad. Beyond that I'm lost.

Has anyone had a decent meal with a sustainable, not endangered, not contaminated out the wazoo fish???

Thanks!

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Has anyone had a decent meal with a sustainable, not endangered, not contaminated out the wazoo fish???
I've enjoyed Bonefish with extended family and non-foodie friends. I haven't been able to keep up with the sustainablilty scores for fish (e.g., striped bass - ok or not?).

So, several enjoyable, non-fish meals have consisted of the House Salad with Danish Bleu cheese or Lily's Chicken. My mom enjoys the Pork Chops. I appreciate their effort to keep ambient noise to a minimum and the patience of the servers with new-to-Bonefish diners.

Some chains are better than others. Bonefish Grill is owned by the same group as Outback & Carrabba and is the best of these three. For a group of work colleagues it's a good choice. Maybe not a Chowhound's first choice, but also not a cheesy place to avoid like a loud holiday party. Bonefish has the undersides of their tables lined with a thick felt-like material to dampen noise. Their servers appear well-trained without becoming robotic and have adequate help from food runners and bussers. Every visit has included a dropby from a roaming manager to check on our table. Reservation important given the size of your group.
Reservations are still a good idea. I haven't noted any real drop-off in their business.
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I haven't been able to keep up with the sustainablilty scores for fish (e.g., striped bass - ok or not?)....Lily's Chicken. My mom enjoys the Pork Chops.

More ecological scoring needed! Industrial pork & chicken farming are major contributors to the pollution of our waterways like the Chessapeake and the James as well as groundwater acquifers. Have you considered breatharianism?

eta I have no idea what kind of chicken or pork is used at Bonefish Grill

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In-laws are visiting for the 4th of July. They are not adventuresome eaters, everyone in the family gets car sick if we go more than 10-15 minutes from their hotel and in desperation we have taken them to Bonefish in the Kentlands twice now. They love it. So we're going again...

Skip Bonefish..too Loud and Dark.. Consider Bealle St Grill in Traville. http://www.bealestreetgrill.com/ Comfortable with owners on premise that care. Food if OK, we have been there several times and have been happy.

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This place scares me. Went to the Kingstowne location with friends who had a gift card. It takes seafood to the level that PF Chang's takes Asian food. There's the trendy communal table running the length of the bar, the signature "bang bang shrimp" on the appetizer menu, crab cakes made with something, and generally 50+ identical menus around the country with no real chef in the kitchen. Yawn...!

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I'm beginning to wonder if it's becoming impossible to get decent seafood at a mid-priced location near the water, or if that's simply something I should stop trying.

Went to Bonefish Grill in Centreville for my daugher's birthday dinner last night (1/3/10). Normally this location is OK, and probably better than the Tyson's Legal Seafood. This time, however, it seems as if the cook had quite working around lunch time. Most of the fish was overcooked. My wife's grouper was (in her words) "chewy." The sides were of dubious quality and one dish, the basmati rice was delivered as a glutinous, gongealed ball of something sort of springy. I think it was supposed to be something like Thai sticky rice, but they surely missed the mark.

The service was also iffy. Drinks came over a span of time, with their special for the evening, a white cranberry cosmo, being delivered nearly 15 minutes after the first drink, my martini (which was served warm). The whole evening was like that. Disjointed, low quality, seemingly unpracticed, and overall poorly done.

I think I'll add this to yet another seafood place to avoid. I realize that all seafood restaurants can't be Le Bernadin, but you'd think they could at least cook fish.

The summary in three words: Don't go here.

Wayne Rash

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The absolute best description of Bonefish that I have ever heard. I might be tempted to add "and to the level that Outback takes steak."

Haha! Seeing as it is owned by the same folks as Outback, that would make perfect sense :angry:

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Any restaurant chain that felt the need to have Alec Baldwin give the '30 Rock' treatment to their radio ads is trying to cover something up.  I wouldn't say Bonefish is the Outback of seafood, they're more the Macaroni Grill of seafood.  Always overpriced and hyped enough to give people the feeling they're treating themselves to something, when a single Google search could probably find a better local restaurant that does what they're willing to overpay for better.

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Hubby and I grabbed a last minute reservation for the Bonefish in Gaithersburg (Kentlands) last Friday night.  I will admit that I love Bonefish, almost as much as my husband loves Outback.  The Kenlands  location is always crowded and while there's better seafood to be had in DC, I don't believe there is better to be had in MoCo.  That said, I will admit to almost always ordering the same few dishes on every visit.

Sorry, but the Bang Bang Shrimp are a must order item for me. They are best straight from the kitchen when still hot and crispy despite the gloppy dressing.  Once cool, these definitely are not as appetizing.  Hubby always orders the PEI mussels.  The broth was a bit sweeter this time then on previous visits, but the mussels are tender and generally grit free.  I must have eaten most of a loaf of bread dipped in that broth!

I usually have the sashimi tuna appetizer for dinner. I couldn't finish it this visit given the amount of bread that I'd consumed, but it is always very fresh.  Hubby ordered the boneless pork chop and it was very tender and had a nice glaze on it.  He's a very big eater, and he had to take leftovers home.

It's certainly not gourmet, but I always feel like we've gotten great food for a decent value whenever we go.  Service is very nice and attentive.  Make sure you say hi to Rachel, who makes the best cosmos in MoCo!

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Went there with a big group a few days ago, and was actually looking forward to it...I admit, I tend to have a fondness for chains like this.

What followed was one of the worst all around meals I've had in a while.

The 'famous' Bang Bang Shrimp was utterly gloppy and unappetizing. Was there a decent fried shrimp under all that sauce? Possibly, but I would have needed a whole lot of scraping to figure that out.

The crab cakes were so aggressively seasoned that you could have made cakes out of pretty much anything and it would have tasted the same.

The fish and chips were crunchy oil sticks.

The decent mussels were overwhelmed with a one note sauce...GARLIC!...and I love garlic.

I could go on and on, but it's not worth the writing time...just put it right in my "no" list, and move on.

 

The bread was good.

 

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Bonefish Grill in Fort Lauderdale provided me with one of the worst service experiences of my adult life.  While the food was passable, especially since we happened upon a Tuesday night three-course discounted special,  it seems as if the entire restaurant went into complete collapse midway through our meal.  The servers came around and made everyone repeat everything they had ordered in order to create checks, and then it took almost an hour for all of us to get our checks and pay and get out. Plates were never cleared.  While we waited, desperately trying to flag someone down, no one ever refilled water, or asked if we wanted more drinks, which we definitely would've had.  Tables around us were becoming increasingly frustrated.  Humans were circulating, but it didn't appear any food was coming out, or any plates for being cleared.

 I sent a detailed message through the website, and did receive an apologetic response from the manager, and eventually, $75 in gift coupons. However, the coupons are good only for food, not beverages.  I find that annoying, because all of us had wine with our meals. 

Previously, our group had always use bonefish Grill for our quarterly dinner gatherings.  After that experience, we switched to a locally owned business. 

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