Brick American Eatery, Save Your Money and go to Olive Garden

Let me start off by saying that I was kind of weary of the restaurant when we went.  $120 worth of food for 60 bucks Groupon seemed like a good deal but I have to say this place is definitely not worth the price of admission Groupon or not.  

We arrived at dinner about 7, which was just when their happy hour ended.  However our server was nice enough to put one more round of drinks in for us, which we all appreciated.  This was a nice gesture which I think all restaurant should follow, however with that our dinner went down hill.  For the remainder of the evening, the service was slow and no one came to refill our waters despite the dining room not being too crowded.

Our appetizers, muscles in white wine sauce, and cheeseburger spring rolls, were nothing special.  The muscles had almost no flavor even when you got to the sauce on the bottom, this could be good if you are looking for something light, but I personally prefer some heavier seasoning.  The spring rolls were fried to perfection and the arugula salad was well composed with the right amount of natural bitterness and vinaigrette, however the filling for the spring rolls was ground beef with cheese, that's it.  Some more seasoning here would again have been nice.  The red sauce was a spicy ketchup concoction which was OK but again nothing special. 

For our mains, we had 3 pasta dishes and the blackened salmon special.  My wife ordered the gnocchi in basil pesto sauce (green), and our friends ordered the gnocchi in vodka sauce and spaghetti and meatballs.  With the lack luster appetizer round my expectations were not very high and on that Brick definitely delivered.  I usually like my pesto to have a very strong basil taste but in this case i would not have guessed there was any basil in it unless someone told me.  The vodka sauce was just as bland, more tomatoey than any other flavor.

In addition the two different gnocchis had very different textures, my wife's being kind of doughy and my friend's being more firm.  I suspect that this is because they used one bag up and opened another for the second order.  Otherwise you'd expect two pasta dishes to have similar texture if they were cooked at the same time.  However we all agreed that for the price, they should have thrown in some protein or something, just eating a plate of pasta gets a little boring even if it is superb. Oh and the spaghetti and meatballs was good, but again nothing special that I would order again.

I think the only dish of the night that had some flavor was my entree, which was a blacken salmon severed over mashed potatoes infused with grilled peppers.  The fish was cooked nicely with a crispy skin on the bottom and a nice cajun spicy mix blackened, not too heavy, not too light.  The mashed potatoes it self was also very good.  The addition of the spicy grilled peppers gave it a slight kick which really livened up the plate.  the tomato salsa on top was also a great addition but I feel like a little more acidity to balance the starch would have worked better.  All in all though it was a well composed dish.

 We were too full after everything to get dessert but based on the meal itself I'd say I did not care to see the dessert menu and my companions agreed.  But before my final verdict there is something you should be aware of when you use a groupon.  And that is once the bill comes you better have a PHD mathematician at the table to figure out how much each person owes, seriously we must have spent at least 30 minutes just trying to do that, and at our table we had 2 business owners, an accountant, and an engineer:-)  In the end, from the undiscounted total of $174+tip-groupon deal+what we owe to the person who brought the groupon-drinks....(30 minutes later), each of us owe about $27/person for 5 people including tip, $34.80/person no tip, undiscounted.

This is a bargain you say, and I'd agree, but consider this: I could have had fried calamari $8.99+ herb grilled salmon $17.97 at Olive Garden for $26.95+$8 drink = $34.95, which I would argue is a far better value/taste because with Olive Garden you at least get bread sticks and soup or salad with your entree.  Or consider this, I could have had a pot of muscles and fries with a nice beer at Monks 3 blocks away for $18 bucks.

So, where are we then with Brick?  Well, with all the other great restaurants in town just a few blocks away.  I'd say this place is only worth visiting if you have a groupon and if you have no tastebuds.  This restaurant get a 6/10.  The inconsistent food, lack of flavor and overall unimaginativeness of the menu guarantees that this Brick will sink to the bottom in no time.