David's Restaurant

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  My companion and I made reservations for David's with high expectations and were disappointed for several reasons. Entering the non-descript building, we encountered a nice, dimly lit  interior with a private dinning room, comfy looking bar with live alto sax jazz before the hostess station and dining area. The main room has a snazzy, pleasant ambience and was well appointed with booths and tables. We, however, were seated in a brighter back overflow room.
  
  Service was spotty at best by our waiter who neglected to tell us the evening special and forgot to tell the chef about a special order. We wanted escargot for an appetizer but were informed it was not up to their standards and was the menu for the evening. It must have really been awful as our appetizers we ordered were bland and cold to luke warm. Tenderloin sliders were grisly with an odd flavor and the Rockefeller Men oysters nearly tasteless. Bread was served in box that appeared to have been purchased a World Market. Our cocktails were good but the waiter forgot to put the order in for refills with our meal.
  
  Worse still was our main courses. My companions's ribeye was cooked as ordered but chewy and the flavor reeked of "soap." My grouper was fine but the crab topping had too much of a "fishy" smell and taste to have been fresh. It seemed as if there was little quality control of what was nicely presented but lacked delivery to the taste buds.
  
  All in all, what promised to be a memorable dining experience proved to be just that but for the wrong reasons. David's needs to get its food and service up to the level of it's prices and expectations. Otherwise we won't be going back.

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  Posted on 02.24.13 Emmett P.

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  I was definitely surprised by this place.  I am used to having good food that is a little upscale but was not expecting it in Amelia Island.  
  
  Decor - Great.  They definitely spent a pretty penny here and it sets the perfect mood for a romantic dinner.  
  
  Ambience - They had a live saxophonist playing when we arrived in the lounge area.   The drinks at the bar were very good and helped start the night off in the right fashion.
  
  Service - We were very happy with the entire staff during our visit.  From the front door to valet we never were left wondering were people were and what they were doing for us.
  
  Food - We both liked our meals and thought they were well prepared.  The risotto may have been a tiny bit underdone but still thought it was very good.  The fish was well prepared as was the steak.
  
  We both liked the meals we had and would definitely return.

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  Posted on 02.01.13 Derek S.

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  We are residents on Amelia Island and found this new restaurant to be a breath of fresh air!  Very well done inside and out, valet parking, a great lounge with an amazing acoustic saxophonist, and a great bar tender, Tristan.  Although the island has a few nice restaurants this one really paid attention to detail in design, ambience, menu and several nice surprises through the meal service, palate cleanser and strawberries with the bill!  Only at the Ritz here on the island do you see that!! Bravo!  Off to a great start!  Don't want to leave out Nolan, our server, very nice and attentive.

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  Posted on 01.05.13 Elaine H.

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  I hate being the first one to review this restaurant and give it only 3 stars because it's a lovely place. It has enormous potential.
  
  The service was incredible. The ambience is wonderful and the decor is beautiful. We loved everything about the setting, the tables, the formality and it set a standard that we didn't feel was quite met by the food.
  
  But I digress:  the only thing we did not love about the ambience was that there was a live saxophone player in the room next to ours that we could clearly hear while there was recorded, light jazz saxophone playing in the dining room.  Surprised me that no one thought of this. It was unpleasant to hear dueling saxophones clashing all through dinner.
  
  The dinner started off with a wonderful amuse bouche. Sweet potato puree with prosciutto and a few other elements.  Lovely start to the meal. It set our expectations high.
  
  My appetizer was portobello mushrooms with lump crap and a red pepper hollandaise. It was....fine.  Nothing special but good. I just felt like it mostly needed more salt, which ended up being a theme throughout the meal for us.
  
  We ordered two salads:  spinach with bacon, vinaigrette and a poached egg and a caesar.  The caesar was fine (again, could have used salt) and same for the spinach salad.  My egg was under cooked.  The whites were still runny and the egg itself was barely tepid. I don't know if they pre-poached and forgot to do the rest or what. I ate around the egg. I also felt like the vinaigrette was good but sparse and unevenly dressed.
  
  Between courses our server brought a really great peach sorbet to cleanse our palate. Nice touch.
  
  My husband loved his main dish:  two petit filets with risotto and carrots. I thought, oddly, the risotto was a bit too salty but the filets were perfect and the reduction on the side had a good flavor but was slightly over reduced (a little gelatinous).
  
  My main was a boneless ribeye with truffle butter, blue cheese mashed potatoes and creamed spinach. The mashed potatoes were great. The steak was cooked well but clearly wasn't allowed to rest long enough because on the first cut, all the juice ran out onto my plate. The flavor was fine (But again, salt and also pepper needed).
  
  For dessert my husband ordered the cheese plate and I got the trio with creme brulee, an orange curd and pot de creme. The cheese plate was HUGE for one person. A lot of cheese. It also had crackers on it that we thought was odd. The fruit and nuts made sense but a bunch of crackers AFTER an entire meal seemed odd to us.  The trio was good. The flavors were all nice. The curd and the pot de creme were both a bit grainy but the flavor was good.
  
  Another nice touch as we were given the bill was two lovely and juicy dark chocolate covered strawberries.
  
  Overall, we really were rooting for the place and would love to come back when we're in town again in hopes they've made a few tweaks to bring the food up to the level of the great service and ambience and general sense of greatness!

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  Posted on 12.23.12 Kristin H.

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