THE GOSSIPING GOURMET: Where the deal can be a steal — for locals

Does $100 a person seem a bit pricey to you for dining out these days? With no end in sight for the mortgage crisis and gas prices escalating every day, not to mention the general state of the economy, lots of folks are choosing to eat at home. The New York Times recently reported that restaurants are feeling the pinch, since expensive meals are a luxury item that is relatively easy to give up.

A number of restaurants in town are responding to this problem by offering special deals or discounts, including the prix fixe menu (a pre-set limited menu for a fixed price), long a feature in Europe.

Sorrento Grille has one for those in the know, and now that means you! It is not presented when you are seated but you may ask for the Locals Only Menu, available Sunday through Thursday between 5:30 and 7 p.m. Another perk of dining early is that the usually buzzy (read noisy) Sorrento is much more quiet at this hour.

For $30, you get a choice of one of three appetizers, four entrées and two desserts. The style of food at Sorrento might be called American retro with a touch of California style thrown in. The entrées could all be described as hearty and generously portioned. Mashed potatoes reign.

Seated upstairs in a booth is our favorite spot in the restaurant. It’s cozy, comfortable and more conducive to conversation, no matter what time you dine.

On the evening we were there, the Locals Only Menu offered as appetizers a simple salad of Santa Barbara greens in sherry vinaigrette, a bowl of chicken and sausage, green chile tortilla soup and retro shrimp scampi with capers.

We ordered the scampi and the soup and, while waiting for our first courses to arrive, we nibbled on their focaccia bread. Their version is the thick cottony variety, made tastier by the addition of herbs and crispy baked onions on the top. We enjoyed the crusts and left the rest behind.

The large portion of five shrimp were served open in the shell, topped with garlicky breadcrumbs and sprinkled with capers. A pot of drawn butter was served on the side and we were glad that it was, because traditional scampi is usually floating in butter. In this case, the sweet, buttery scampi were perfectly delicious with just the additional crunch and flavor of the crumbs along with the burst of saltiness and acidity from the capers.

The first mouthful from the ample bowl of soup was loaded with flavor but nary a tortilla strip. Unfortunately, it was also loaded with salt, masking the taste of all the nice fresh corn and chicken sausage. We both have a high tolerance for salt but we actually had to send the soup back. We were disappointed because it had the potential to be delicious.

Instead, we opted for the very nice selection of greens in a tasty vinaigrette that was, alas, applied with too heavy a hand. When we are not working, we usually ask for the dressing on the side because so many restaurants overdress; but when we are reviewing, we want to taste the food the way it’s presented normally.

We passed on the sliced skirt steak with Roquefort mashed potatoes, sautéed spinach and onion au jus. We also skipped the cedar planked salmon with bacon, asparagus and mashed potatoes because the salmon was not wild but farm-raised. Instead, we chose the red wine braised short ribs with mashed potatoes and horseradish cream as well as the rosemary thyme fried chicken with sour cream mashed potatoes.

We asked our waiter if we could substitute vegetables for mashed potatoes on one of the entrées. Absolutely no substitutions are permitted on the special menu, he informed us. So we ordered a side of broccolini. When our entrées arrived, we were surprised to discover that they came with a nice portion of vegetables, which our waiter never mentioned, even though it was clear that we really wanted some kind of vegetable with our dinner. We also thought it was an oversight not to mention them in the description on the menu. However, the broccolini, loaded with garlic, was perfectly cooked and scrumptious.

The ultra tender short ribs were served on top of a bed of luscious mashed potatoes, not those pasty smooth ones that you suspect are from a box. These had real potato flavor and texture. Maybe that’s why they accompany every entrée on the menu. There was a very nice medley of vegetables as well. The only disappointment was the sauce, seemingly a combination of steak sauce and red wine, which had not been slow-cooked with the meat and thus lacked depth of flavor.

Listed as fried chicken on the menu, we expected this entrée to be pieces of chicken, not the two large breaded chicken cutlets that arrived”¦ another menu blip. The cutlets were moist, and the breading was crisp; they came with sautéed spinach and, of course, mashed potatoes. Poured on top of it all was a superfluous and rather boring rosemary cream sauce.

The two choices for dessert were tiramisu and apple tart with almond streusel crust, caramel sauce and cinnamon ice cream. The tiramisu looked really beautiful and was obviously made with mascarpone (a light Italian cream cheese) rather than the inauthentic whipped cream version that you see about town. Sadly, one bite was enough to reveal that this particular dessert had been lingering in the walk-in far too long. We would have liked to taste it when it was fresh.

Much better was the apple tart; although it was not a tart at all, but a cobbler with lots of nice apples and a very thin sprinkling of crunchy streusel crumbs.

It was swimming in a sea of caramel sauce but in our personal opinion everything goes better with caramel sauce. However, the accompanying cinnamon ice cream was strangely not very sweet.

For $30, you get a lot of hearty food and maybe even a to-go bagful for another meal. That’s a deal!

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Sorrento Grille (949) 494-8686

WHERE: 370 Glenneyre St.

WHEN: Locals Only Menu: Sunday through Thursday

5:30 to 7 p.m.

PRICE: Three courses for $30

ELLE HARROW and TERRY MARKOWITZ owned a la Carte for 20 years and can be reached at themarkos755@yahoo.com.