Pamplemousse Grill

In a rather dingy shopping mall location, the restaurant is smart inside, serving American food despite its French name. Highly rated in the Zagat’s guide, this is a true rip-off that should be avoided at all costs (and believe me, the costs are high). It features the single most expensive wine list I have ever encountered, wide in scope but with wines not merely at two or three times retail price, but at four, five, six times or more retail price. A simple Penfolds Bin 389 was only three and a half times retail price, and that was the best value wine I could find on the entire list. Sadly, the food does not make up for this daylight robbery. A medley of starters featured an acceptable crabcake, fair smoked salmon, some tasteless grilled tomatoes with Mozarella and a chewy ravioli of mushrooms (12/20). This was still much better than the main course, a disappointing fillet steak with a surprisingly tasteless mustard sauce and wildly overcooked vegetables (11/20). My companion’s veal (essentially a schnitzel) was large in scale but dull in taste (11/20).