Bermuda - Ocean Echo at the Reefs review
I finally had a chance to head over to the Reefs for dinner. Normally I only manage to make it over for brunch but that’s another review. It was a quiet night, not too many tables at Ocean Echo. The weather was lovely outside and managed to get a window table to watch the rolling ocean and sunset.
Onto the food:
For starters, I ordered the smoked salmon and avocado roll. When it came out, it was just smoked salmon and diced avocado with strips of red pepper rolled in nori. Well, they must have made it ages ahead of time because the seaweed was completely soggy and the avocado was turning brown. It came with a little seaweed salad on the side topped with a bit of julienned carrot. I ate the salad but left the roll after I ate 1.5 pieces. I just couldn’t do it, it was completely mushy and texture just couldn’t overcome anything else. The DP ordered the traditional cod fish cake served over an avocado salsa, was decent but it was nothing exceptional. Well done and not overly greasy with a good amount of cod and not just a giant fried potato ball.
For mains, the DP ordered the pan fried pork chop over polenta (medium well) and I ordered rack of lamb (medium rare). Our mains come out, I take one look at the racks and I know it’s overcooked (cutting into it just proved that it came out well done). The waitress was superb and immediately took it back. When it returns, the lamb is perfectly cooked and it was delicious. It came with roasted fingerling potatos which were super yummy if only I wasn’t getting super full and crisp green beans. Unfortunately in the intervening time, my DP’s dish got cold, they took it back and said they would fire a new one however when it came back out, it was wee bit dried out which made me suspect they “fired” it under the heat lamp instead. Oh well, the polenta definitely helped to make it more palatable.
Dessert is normally my favourite course (I would vote to start with dessert usually) so when I spied warm chocolate soufflé on the menu and definitely went for it. The DP ordered the apple strudel with rum raisin ice creaml. They arrive and I’m a bit confused. It doesn’t look like any soufflé I’ve had and it was pretty quick as well (as opposed to the usual 15 minute wait for soufflés). It arrives and it’s not even in a ramekin. Cut it open with the fork and it’s just a warm cooked through chocolate cake (so not even warm and gooey in the middle). Had two bites and then just ate the ice cream. Couldn’t do it. The apple strudel was cool and the pastry, well, not puff pastry and was fairly dense and tough, more like pie crust than flaky pastry. Again, the ice cream disappeared but all was left otherwise.
They were really nice and took the apps off the bill in the end (I’m guessing they sensed the disappointment with the food seeing as I left most of my app and my dessert on the plates). And our waitress was exceptional. Hopefully the kitchen improves as I’m surprised for such an edited menu that not everything comes out great.
