Untitled by stagger
I liked Steps a lot, but I tend to like both wine bars and small plate places.
They had a much bigger wine list than I anticipated (bigger than currently on their website), and most are available by the half-glass, glass, or bottle. With the half-glasses, you can create your own tasting flight or simply choose one of their currently highlighted flights. I was actually pretty beat when I was there and did not peruse the list as thoroughly as I might, so I had them make one up for me to fit whatever I ordered as long as they did not give me a sauvignon or chenin blanc (yuk! although I like them fine as dessert wines).
As for their menu, it was divided up into “snacks”, “small plates”, something-larger-than-small-plates, and “desserts.” Although the menu items items are already kinda sorted by size and price, they still could vary quite a bit in size, so one should verify plate sizes with the waitperson (true in most places though).
Service was very good. It was not very crowded, but then I was there in the middle of the week. The chef came up to the second floor where we were sitting to talk to us for a while. He was pretty cool.
It was not as pricey as I was anticipating, since we were on an Island where most things are shipped in or out.
Oh, yes, the food. It was good. We got two fried snack items: onion rings in some sort of tasty batter with some sort of bbq sauce and tempura tofu. The tofu was more on the conventional side, but well done, as were the onion rings. It’s amazing how many places can’t pull off fried items well. We also got some sort of salad thing that was fine but unremarkable.
The next batch of plates consisted of a gnocchi dish with two types of gnocchi with vegetables in a brown butter sauce (yowsa! freaking awesome!) I the fishytarian also got two fishy dishes: a miso cod thing… tasty, but more conventional again and a pan-seared rockfish with seaweed salad, sesame seeds, and some sort of wasabi sauce (also pretty awesome).
We also got dessert… the spouse got a chocolaty thing and I got an odd interpretation of strawberry shortcake. I also got a half glass of some dessert wine whose name escapes me. It was good though.
All in all, an enjoyable experience. I wish they were located in Seattle. I will have to go back to see if it is a good as I remember.
over 6 years ago
