A little while ago, I tried to eat at Archie's. When my group of friends and I walked in the door, a man requested $5 from us. What? Apparently there was a band playing, and you had to pay $5 to enter. But I just wanted to eat dinner. No go, according to that doorman. So we left.
Recently, I decided to give this place another try. When my friend and I walked into the Sabraton restaurant this time, we were greeted much more warmly. A man from behind the bar straight ahead told us to sit wherever we liked. There was a dining area to the left and another to the right. We headed right, amongst tons of high-top tables, to sit next to their Christmas tree.
We had a very, very friendly waitress. She took our drink orders, brought our menus and then asked our names. That was confusing, but I guess she just wanted to be friendly. We put in an order for honey BBQ wings as an appetizer. When they came out, I must say, I wasn't very impressed. The flavor was okay - not very zesty - but the texture kind of threw me. The skin was like a slimy, fatty coating. I much prefer them to be a little crispier. And these had bone-in. I really like the boneless ones, but these were okay. I probably wouldn't order them again, though.
For the entree, I ordered the whale of a fish sandwich. It was 10 oz. of haddock on a sub bun with tartar sauce, tomato and lettuce. This sandwich was huge! It was cut in half, so it really did look like two full sandwiches. The first bite I took was a ton of breading and a little fish. That made for a pretty dry sandwich. Once I got further into the sandwich, I could taste the tartar, just not very well in proportion to the rest of the sandwich. I asked the waitress for extra tartar sauce to help this sandwich out a bit - it was too dry without it. The extra tartar cup definitely added some flavor and made the sandwich more cohesive. It did, however, contain a ton of relish. That's not my preference. So, it was okay. The sandwich came with a side of chips, which was a nice crunchy, salty addition.
As we were getting ready to leave, other people started to trickle in. Unfortunately, you're still able to smoke in there, so I'm glad we got out before it got too smokey inside. All in all, a pretty average experience and food.
Grade: C
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