Such is the case with my recent dining experience at White Chocolate Grill. And I really wanted to like this place since it’s in my neighborhood. I’m hoping it was just a “bad” night.  Maybe I just expected too much.

Looking over the menu, nothing really jumped out at me.  The server came by to get our orders about 20 minutes after we were seated and I still was not ready to place my order.  I asked our server what he likes to order from their menu and he mentioned their ribeye, which I would have ordered instantly, but I was not in the mood for steak – I know, shocker, huh?!?  Then he mentioned the special – sea bass – and I was ready to order.  Sea Bass, is one of my favorite fish, ever since I first tried the Chilean Sea Bass at Tao.  So now, whenever I see it on a menu, I’ll order it, in hopes of duplicating the Tao experience (which, by the way, can only be imitated – Tao is still up there on my list of favorite restaurants…).

So, I had the sea bass – and Chilean it was not – more like from the Santa Barbara region.  It was hardwood grilled with a citrus flavored rub/seasoning mix and served with a side of steamed broccoli (my favorite!) and some kind of dill sauce, which I thought was too thick and heavy for the fish.  All it needed was a touch of lemon juice.  This was good, don’t get me wrong.  I enjoyed it. I did.  But it wasn’t spectacular. I wasn’t expecting fireworks, but for the premium price of $25.99, I expected sparklers, at least.  Or at least a bigger hunk of fish and not just a snack-sized fillet.

The other dish that we ordered was their  is their Pork Tenderloin entree that is prepared with an apricot bbq glaze.  They give you about 6 medallions of pork loin and top it with the glaze.  This was served with a side of mashed potatoes, which was really nice and creamy.  This was $18.00.   It was tasty.

White Chocolate Grill has done what no other restaurant that I’ve been to has done – a pretty bold move at that.  On their menu, the first items that are listed are their desserts, where at other restaurants, the desserts are listed either at the end of the menu or on a separate menu altogether.

So this subliminally told me “our desserts are so good, that we had to list them first on the menu”. I wasn’t sure at that time if that’s the message that they intended to send, but that’s the message I got.

So, instead of ordering appetizers or salads, we opted to save our appetites and make room for dessert.  At the end of our meal, we ordered 2 desserts…the first 2 desserts that they had listed on the menu.

White Chocolate Banana Cream Pie (with Graham Cracker Crust) $7.50

A mini banana cream pie of sorts. The base is a graham cracker and oatmeal crust that was light and crispy and pretty tasty.  The filling was a vanilla-ish pudding of sorts with banana slices, that was way too runny.  I also couldn’t tell if it should have been banana flavored or vanilla flavored because of the visible vanilla bean, as its flavor was difficult to decipher.  This was all topped with a dollop of whipped cream and white chocolate shavings (that had some funky aftertaste).  The caramel sauce, I want to say, was purely for aesthetic purposes as it did not add or take away from the taste (or lack of) of the dessert.  Also way too runny/diluted.

White chocolate Brownie (Callebaut Choclate and French Vanilla ice cream) $7.50

The White Chocolate Brownie was disaster.  It could have been saved had the brownie been a regular brownie brownie and not a blondie.  I get it… White Chocolate Grill… White Chocolate Brownie. But how about if they did say a regular brownie with white chocolate chunks in the brownie or maybe some sort of white chocolate topping.  This one was trying too hard to be good, and it wasn’t. The brownie was more like a chewy/doughy sugar cookie and the chocolate sauce was way too runny and all over the place.  The saving grace to this dessert was the vanilla ice cream and the whip cream, which, no matter how hard you try, you can’t mess up.  I know… OUCH! Bad blogger!  Sorry…

So I’m hoping they were just having a bad night, which was why we had to wait 20 minutes to place our order and get something to drink, then wait another 35 minutes or so to get our food (which we finished in 15 minutes), then wait another 20 minutes for dessert (which wasn’t all that), then wait another 15 minutes for our check.  We were seated at 6:15ish and didn’t get out till close to 9 pm.  And by this time, I so wanted to just get out of this place already.

I’ll give White Chocolate Grill another try, for sure… but not anytime soon.  The White Chocolate Grill aftertaste is still a turn -off.

Tread cautiously, if you want to give it a try.  You might have a different experience than what we had.  Maybe I should have tried the ribeye…  maybe….

*****

White Chocolate Grill

9510 South Eastern Avenue

Las Vegas, NV 89123

Phone: (702) 436-7100