Review - Tommy's Las Olas

By JUDITH STOCKS | Special Correspondent for South Florida Sun-Sentinel -   February 22, 2008.
The room is small, moody and seductive. Pressed white linen-draped tables set with orchid sprays look especially bright against a subdued background of burnt orange and soft browns.

Objet d'art chandeliers sparkle with reflective light and artist-commissioned copper sculptures gently separate the 16-seat bar from the dining room. A chic venue for cocktails and dinner, with open frontage that lets the evening air and excitement of Las Olas sneak in.

We're at Tommy's Las Olas, opened 10 months ago by Tommy Panetta and Purvin Pujara. It's polished, likable and warm-spirited — boosted by very good food and service. Live entertainment (Wednesday-Saturday) ranges from background piano music to a vocalist and a small band on Friday and Saturdays — keeping in line with the supper club theme.

Whispers of Asian, Italian, steakhouse fare and current trends landscape the menu through a full page of appetizers followed by steaks, chops, seafood and chicken, supplemented with specials. The starting point is $18, hiking to $40 for a 10-ounce filet mignon or rack of lamb, with market-priced Florida lobster tails.

Soft-roasted garlic cloves, piquant green olives and roasted red peppers make an amuse-bouche while pondering first courses. Soup or salad along with potatoes or rice and veggies are included with entrees — and I'm not talking the usual soup and salad snooze. We rhapsodized over each spoonful of mushroom soup rich with cream and finely pureed mushrooms, but executive chef John Angle has just as nice a way with salads and house-made dressings. A rewarding Caesar carries full-flavored creaminess clinging to crisp romaine, and a house salad of baby greens showered with walnuts and blue cheese hits new heights with Angle's fruity fresh pear vinaigrette.

Considering the ambience, the last thing I expected was chicken wings, but they're here — $9 for mild, medium or hot with blue cheese or ranch. In a place like this, I go for shrimp and lobster dip, beef carpaccio, prosciutto and melon, oysters Rockefeller or smoked salmon with capers ($11-$12). Or, a lovely portobello mushroom capped with flaky puff pastry, highlighted by fresh mozzarella, roasted red peppers and candylike balsamic drizzle ($11). Cilantro-spiked Thai barbecue-style fried calamari arrives lightly breaded in a barely spicy lightly applied sauce ($10), and the same 10 spot buys six luscious Asian-style ribs (the meat pops right off the bone), with refreshing Oriental slaw of julienne carrots and bell peppers steeped in rice vinegar.

I'm happy anytime I spend an evening with a veal chop — particularly a 12-ounce, perfectly cooked one marinated in garlic and lemon, served with a ragout of shiitakes, portobellos, oyster and domestic button mushrooms ($42). And, $22 treats you to five jumbo shrimp, coconut crusted or grilled, in sassy chili sauce with refreshing mango salsa as a counterpoint, while $36 delivers a nice hunk of Chilean sea bass braised in a delicate broth of tomatoes, caramelized onions and fennel.

I haven't found really good apple strudel since Fort Lauderdale's Nada's Dubrovnik Restaurant closed years ago. Until now. The one made here is sugar-crusted, warmed in the oven, not a microwave, producing phyllo layers as crisp as paper, plumped with firm apples and golden raisins. It's competition for excellent citrus-scented Italian ricotta cheesecake, and a divine dark chocolate layer cake — all priced at $7. Just a few more reasons to let the fine-tuned performance of Tommy's lead you into temptation.

Comments

[evolved]

This restaurant is an absolute joke. Not only did Tommy fire all of the staff that weren't washed-out junkies, he himself has an attitude and management style that leaves much to be desired. Threatening customers? Not okay. Yelling at staff on the floor? Not okay. Kicking people who complain out of the restaurant? Not okay. The final straw, and why I refuse to go back to Tommy's ever again, was watching Tommy himself drunkenly hit on every woman in the bar, almost in a harassing nature. This again, was very much not okay. The food is less than mediocre - a menu I've seen a thousand times in a thousand different cities. Waitstaff that are so cranked up on drugs they can barely put a plate on the table without shaking. I mean, come on. Purvin, I've seen what he's done with other establishments, and I suggest he move on from this obviously toxic relationship with a restaurant manager that may as well be a side show performer at a circus.