Bloomberg's Ryan Sutton takes the Blue Parrot to task in his latest review of the East Hampton Tex-Mex-mecca. A taste:
'Delta Air Lines' was inscribed on the knives. But we weren’t on a flight, we were dining in the Hamptons at a land-based eatery that evokes the universally miserable experience of eating crummy food in an economy class seat. And so begins his analysis of the restaurant, a 'fashionably disingenuous accommodation of the recession'. He notes that the Parrot sometimes has food that's better than an airline's, but not always, urging us to 'decline the waiter’s offer of guacamole, which will set you back $12 and result in a tiny dish that tastes of nothing at all, with the chunky green paste chilled into submission'. Sutton's complaints are occasionally to be expected, as the 'deafening noise' is no surprise, and the 'mismatched chairs' and the 'worn' blue-painted floor is part of the charm. Unfortunately for the Parrot, that doesn't explain the salsa: an 'insipid pulp [that] tastes worse than supermarket brands'. Ouch. Playing second banana is the Surf Lodge's restaurant, which seems to take some of its heat just from Sutton's views of the Blue Parrot. Oddly enough, the Montauk restaurant is praised for its fried chicken and scorned for its take on the lobster roll. (Butter should never replace mayo.) Deemed 'quieter' than its Mexican predecessor, the Surf Lodge still angers our reviewer as a result of its beyond lax service: 'Diners throughout the outdoor deck looked for their servers. They waved their checks in the air. They wished they were elsewhere.' As did Sutton, who was unimpressed at the thought of paying $400 a night to be a part of the 'Hamptons sprawl'. 'Will I be back?', he concludes. Unsurprisingly the answer is a resounding no.
· Hamptons’ Blue Parrot; Surf Lodge’s $26 Lobster Roll [Bloomberg]