For: A New Restaurant
1330 S. Fern St., Arlington; 571-319-4001; epicsmokehouse.com.
“It’ll be six to eight minutes before your appetizers come out,” the server says after we place our order.
Shredded romaine, doused in a fiery Caesar salad, thanks to the addition of ancho chile dressing misses its PR (personal record) reaching the bare, wooden table at the nine minute mark.
The salad is the highlight of the first heat, trumping too heavily flour-and-cornmeal-crusted oysters and 40-minute, cold-smoked (although we couldn’t detect it) scallops were overwhelmed from the power of kimchi, which the kitchen buys from a Koren store in Annandale.
Round two stars a juicy, pork loin, one of the non-smoked dishes.
Dry, braised short ribs and a horseradish crusted (where’s the crust?) prime rib not wearing enough of the promised smoke, tie for a last place finish.
For a restaurant claiming steakhouse dining with barbecue flavors, we left doubly disappointed.
(December 2012)
