Love Life, Hate Kittens

[The Pork Osso Buco *cough* via yelp]

I must preface. Service was 5 stars all the way. Both our waitresses were excellent. Given that we only had 45 minutes to eat before the John Legend concert, they knew when to bring our bill, pace our food, and get us through the side door directly to the theatre.

And the bread was amazingly good. The decor was beautiful.

And that’s where it stops. I’m not being judgmental or bougie but this line from a review I read says a lot… “Quite honestly, this place is one of the best in the valley.”

Oh really. Mighty bold statement for a city that also boasts a 2 story Sizzler’s. :-/

The chef seems like he watched too many episodes of Top Chef and decided that more is well… more. Adding many sauces and stacking your food does not equal fine dining.

We ordered:

Calamari - It’s a staple right? They topped it with mayo, over crusted the already dry calamari and ‘artfully’ arranged it on a bed of marinara sauce. Then sprinkled a handful of herbs on it. Hmmmm.

Ceviche - Oh. I didn’t realize ceviche stood for ‘trio of crudo’. We have some tortilla chips in one corner, a couple marinated whole shrimp in the next, salmon topped with dill mayo in the other, and lastly, ahi tuna chunks? in teriyaki? Is this a twisted version of ahi poke? The best thing on the ‘plate’ was the shrimp and even that was stretching it. You can tell old shrimp from the limp shell..

Mussels in white wine - Huge portion of undersized, overcooked mussels in ….. marinara sauce? Oh.

Fries - French fries were normal. Thanks.

OK. So maybe I won’t ever come back here again. Or to Indio for that matter but seriously? This is not a 4.5 star place. This isn’t even a 3 star place. I applaud the chef’s efforts for a creative menu but creativity does not sacrifice taste.

Tattoo that.

POM Restaurant @ Fantasy Springs Resort
84245 Indio Springs Dr
Indio, CA 92203
(760) 345-2450
www.fantasyspringsresort.com