Food: Sunday's In Ybor City

After reading the many rave reviews of that new eatery in Ybor, Sunday's Fine Dining on 7th Avenue, my salivating taste buds demanded that I take them there for dinner. So me, my taste buds, and the Belle of Ballast (BOB) Point headed over to Sunday's for dinner Tuesday evening.

I had called ahead to make a reservation, but upon arrival we realized that wasn't necessary. At 6:30 this very attractive restaurant was practically deserted. We had our choice of tables and we chose one at the window looking out onto 7th. There is also seating in the loft that overlooks the dining area below.

Soon after being seated we were presented with ice water and menus, and our server described the evening's specials. Sunday's now has a full bar, so we requested a bottle of wine to accompany our dinner. We chose a very tasty and interestingly named Shiraz, the Red Belly Black from Australia. This Shiraz would have been great with our entrées had the bottle not been almost completely drained by the time our main plates arrived.

This is not to suggest that we are fast drinkers, but that the kitchen was excruciatingly slow. There were uncommonly long time gaps between courses. I could understand if this was a busy night, but there were only three tables besides ours that were occupied.

I had intended to order the Belgium Mussels as an appetizer, but when our server listed the specials, the Japanese Mussels sounded intriguing. I should have stayed with the mussels from Belgium. The four green lipped mussels were served on a very tasty bed of wakame (seaweed) salad greens. The over done mussels themselves were buried under a huge wad of toasted panko crumbs. The wasabi aioli was good, but the mussels simply got lost in the crowd.

My dining partner eschewed an appetizer in favor of the bread basket which didn't appear until just before our entrées were served. The infused olive oil that was presented with the bread was excellent.

For her main course, BOB vacillated between the Lemon Oregano Salmon and the Bison Buco. She finally chose the braised bison short ribs over a spaghetti squash Milanaise. Short ribs are one of bison's most economical and under rated cuts. They do require some work to prepare, and usually at least 3 hours of low heat cooking, but not after your customers have placed their order. The ribs were very tender and tasty.

I have been craving duck of late, so the Brick Pressed Duck with anjou pear slaw, hibachi sauce, and vegetable fried rice seemed like a perfect choice for me. The duck was well prepared, with "well" being a key word here. Overcooking this aquatic fowl tends to dry out the meat and rob it some of the flavor. I probably should have specified rare to medium rare on my bird. The hibachi dipping sauce did add a bit of flavor, but would have over powered the richness of a less well cooked bird.

There were several other menu choices that seemed appealing, and we may give them a try sometime in the future. For this visit, though, neither me, my taste buds, nor the Belle of Ballast Point were overly impressed.

Our bill for food, wine, and a 20% gratuity came to a bit over $125.00.