Cooking For Engineers

[Dilbert]

December 2016

Daytona Beach, Florida, is not famous for super restaurants. After searching non-Yelp reviews, we visited two on a short vacation: Chart House (in Daytona Beach proper) and Stonewood (Ormond Beach, about 15 minutes distant.)

The Chart House has two levels, both with the same view over the harbor - but the upper level provides a better vantage point - if you like boats, that is. This is a restaurant "chain" - ( www.chart-house.com ) - but based on quality and freshness, methinks the food is all locally prepared with very minimal 'out of the can/box' stuff.

Service was excellent; our server Thomas knew the menu and was happy to make suggestions and substitutions to our tastes. The meal was not rushed, spacious seating, nice accoutrements.

Starters was a very large plate of sizzling mushrooms to share - excellent dish - plus for me Oysters Rockefeller - extremely well prepared and tasty. These were not canned/frozen/whatever oysters plunked into a sterilized shell - it's the real deal and real delicious.

Entrees: (1) NY strip steak + (2) Scampi over (noodle) pasta in cream sauce + (3) grilled grouper with a splendid avocado pico topping. DW found the shrimp a bit disappointing; the cream sauce and noodles did not go especially well with the rest of the dish.

The steak and grouper were very good - served hot, steak done to just right - the grilled grouper perfectly cooked and the pico 'salsa' was especially good. For fish that reach really big sizes, the portion was a bit on the small side but with the sides, left me quite satisfied.

Reservations recommended - it's a popular spot.

Pricing is moderate - meal+tip (excluding alcohol) about $50/person - the food does justify the cost.