Sensing - Celebrity Name But No Personality

I went to Sensing yesterday for Boston Restaurant Week. I was hoping this place would be good since it is associated with Chef Guy Martin (of the famed Grand Vefour in Paris), but I was also skeptical since 'satellite' restaurants of celebrity chefs are often disappointing shells, lacking the personality and brilliance of their creators. Unfortunately, my skeptism was correct.

Walking in, I immediately *felt* like I was in a hotel restaurant. Yes, Sensing is inside of a hotel, but given the starpower behind the restaurant, they should have been able to invest more in the decor. It felt like I was in a cheesy Ikea imitation of a nice restaurant. The funny thing was that bathrooms (located outside of the restaurant) felt nicer than the restaurant! Maybe that's a testament to quality of The Fairmont Hotel, however, you'd think they would set standards for the restaurants inside their hotel.

I started with an heirloom tomato salad topped with caramelized pine nuts and a basil-ginger dressing. I love heirloom tomatoes, and this salad made me very happy. The flavors were well balanced - the sweetness of the caramelized pine nuts offset the acidity from the tomatoes. The fresh basil also added another layer of depth to the flavors. The various tastes and textures all complemented one another.

For my entree, I had the pan fried halibut over mussels, chorizo, shiitake and cranberry beans with a preserved lemon vinaigrette drizzled on top. Our waitress also gave me this big bowl of broth with cherry tomatoes and tofu. Oddly, she couldn't really tell me what to do with it, so I just assumed I was supposed to pour it on top of my dish. The fish could have been cooked slightly less, but I was satisfied with my dish overall. The chorizo and cranberry beans gave the dish a hearty feel, while the lemon vinaigrette brightened it up. I'm glad I poured the broth over my dish, otherwise the fish and other components would have tasted too dry.

B ordered the cod steamed in lemongrass with seasonal vegetables in a coconut-grapefruit foam. Our waitress said it was the restaurant's "signature" dish and stays on their menu year-round, but I call it a 'disaster' dish. The entire thing was completely overcooked - the cod was dry and flavorless, the vegetables were wilted and rubbery. I am shocked that they would boast about this dish. Maybe they cook so many of these dishes that they no longer pay attention to it...who knows.

I had a financier cake with an assortment of sorbets for dessert. This was my worst course of the night, and a rare occassion in which I did not finish every bite of my dessert. The financier cake tasted like stale almond cake. The "sorbets" (which were actually gelatos) were just ok - the strawberry was nice and refreshing, the cookies and cream was mediocre, and the lime was just weird. The waitress told me the lime sorbet was coconut, yet it was green, tasted like lime, and had no resemblance of coconut. Although staff was nice, they didn't know very much about the food and lacked professionalism - the waitress actually walked away from the table next to us while they were ordering their wine in mid-sentence! The service was quite clumsy and definitely nothing like what you would expect from a 'nice' restaurant.

BITE METER: Sensing - 2.0 bites (out of 5)