Bonfire Grill

While it may be a little early to give this place a real review, I have a few quick impressions from a visit there last night with my wife.

The space is decent looking by Forest Hills standards, but not exactly that attractive. The bar area is a little more appealing than the bland, oddly colored, dining room. The cheap tables and chairs don't do much for the space either.

Service wasn't great, but that's typical this early. Our waitress took quite some time to take our order (it appeared she was also cleaning and setting tables). She never brought the water I asked for, never asked if I wanted a second glass of wine and she brought out our main course before we were finished with our appetizers. That last one is a big one for me, but certainly not fatal for a just opened and obviously not ambitious restaurant.

From the limited menu I tried the calamari appetizer. This was lightly fried and came with a cocktail like sauce which I didn't care for. The calamari themselves were alright, slightly rubbery and no added crunch from the light batter and frying. I also had the burger. This was nothing special. Typical burger like you would get at any number of places. The fries were tragic for me. Soggy and greasy.

My wife had the ceasar salad which she said was decent and a some goat cheese tapas. This was some toasted bread with a little bit of goat cheese (too little my wife said) and some artichoke and tomato mixture.

We'll see what happens as they get up to speed and have their full menu available, but I'm not that optimistic. Honestly, we typically cook every night and only go out on the weekends, which means usually a trip into Manhattan or maybe Jackson Heights. While some good options in the hood would be great, I'm not so desperate that I'll be excited about something that doesn't really warrant it. There seems to be a lot of excitement on the blogs about this place, and that's OK. I just don't think it fills any real need for me.