Kona Grill in Troy. A Coney Island with nice furniture?

A few days back, we has a family meal at the Kona Grill. The attraction was, that being American-Asian cuisine, both the sushi-eating and kid-food-eating kids would be happy.

Now, I've been there before, but only for lunch. And, admittedly, it was pretty good. The atmosphere was decent, and the raw fish was nice. I think I remember having an ahi tuna burger there and being impressed too.

All of the above did not quite carry into the evening meals. We started with Calamari - given the nice appearance of this place, we assumed they would have had a half clue about cooking calamari - i.e. the oil needs to be the right temperature and you don't want to under or over cook it. Unfortunately the oil was too cool - which resulted in the greasy mess you see below

Look how it glistens!!

Even the kids were not impressed. And left lots of it behind.

So, onto the main courses. The sushi-kid had a spicy tuna roll, some squid and some salmon roe. I sampled some; it seemed pretty much ok. The only gripes were that we had to ask for wasabi and ginger - it didn't come with it (or maybe the server forgot), and the price. There was nothing special about it - we have definitely had better elsewhere, locally, and spent less.

The non-sushi kid had macadamia nut chicken fingers and fries. Not good. Fries were super oily, the macadamia nut crust simply fell off the chicken (oily crust too), leaving some over-cooked chicken underneath.

Onto the adults - she had Thai-Peanut Chicken Noodles. To me, it wasn't bad. To her, the sauce was overpowering. I had the 5-spice bbq chicken pizza. Again, not too bad, but overpowered by the slathers of bbq sauce on it. And, the menu said it had cilantro. There might have been cilantro on there somewhere, but I did not find it.

Beer - I had a small glass (I guess 16 oz - not stated how much) of wheat beer. It was ok, but it cost $5. She had Pinot Grigio - apparently good, and should be at $7.50 a glass.

Deserts. I did not do desert. She did, and had Creme Brulee. Which apparently tasted more like custard with a little badly burnt (not caramelized) sugar on top. Could this have been microwaved??

The kids had a root beer float. Apparently good - but it's pretty difficult to mess that up.

All in all, it cost us over $80 for a mediocre meal.

Like I said, it's good there for lunch. But I won't be back for dinner.

At least the Colney Island is realistic in its prices. And there, we are realistic in our expectations. And the furniture is not as plush, nor are the clientèle, but there's not much in it when it comes to comparing the quality of the food - well, at least the food we had.

One last thing about the Kona Grill. When we pulled in, I was rushed at by a Valet attendant. Apparently, if you pull to the front of the restaurant, you're opting for 'complimentary' valet parking. This is so 'complimentary' that an individual company operates the valet service (sure, no tip is mandatory, but, ya know..). So, when I told him No, I want to self-park, he told me I had to park behind the restaurant! (it seems they had not yet put the signs out). Now that is something that really, really bugs me. Why can I not park where the heck I like, whether there is a valet parking option or not? Why do the stupid valet parkers get areas reserved for them? Why can't they simply find a space like the rest of us? Is it important to the car owner that the car is parked close to the door? Should it not matter, as valet parking means that you don't have to worry about where your car is? Arrggggh!!!! The restaurant is in TROY, not LA!!!!!