[food/drink] Sauce Bar & Grill (Davis Square)

The two "small plates" we had tasted wonderful: roast garlic soup, and some kind of spinach-in-phyllo-dough thing. Neither one was subtle, but each was more complex than it looked on paper. (The soup, with just garlic, sour cream, scallions and bits of eggplant, particularly so.)

With the addition of the entree, though, the meal became ridiculously overpriced and somewhat disappointing... a tiny piece of fish perched on a pile of smooth but bland mashed potatoes. The fish's topping (bread crumbs, mustard and more garlic) lived up to its menu description, for what that was worth, but "pan-seared cod" just seemed undercooked. (I tend not to like fish rare anyway, but pan-seared tuna and I can reach a mutual understanding. This was not that.) The apple cake for dessert made very little impression.

I would happily go back at least once to eat the same two good things again, and since I liked the part of the menu they claimed to specialize in best, pleasant surprises would not be surprising. But the high prices and some of the reviews it's gotten on the internet (including multiple people who claim their credit cards were overcharged!) give me pause.

It's actually kind of rare that I feel like a mixed experience at a nice restaurant is not probably the result of my limited discernment instead of the restaurant's problems. I think they actually get the blame for this one.