The Mouth is happy to be wrong (this time)

Published 3:56 am Thursday, November 18, 2010

Bright lighting, multiple flat-screens showing sporting events, an open, warehouse-like dining room, calculated, uninspired menu items, neon signs and live music. All of these are restaurant characteristics that I strongly object to, if not downright loathe. They’re distractions that impede my ability to fully enjoy the dining experience.

However, if the service and food can rise above these negative aspects, I just might be won over. Long Beach, Wash.’s Lost Roo Restaurant and Bar, or “The Roo” as it’s referred to by many locals, has won me over in spite of the aforementioned offenses.

Six months or so into my stint as The Mouth, I started to notice that the Long Beach Peninsula has the highest concentration of great and awful restaurants. That is to say, most of the eateries that have received my highest and lowest ratings are located between Ilwaco and Ocean Park. So when I walked into a giant sports bar guilty of embodying everything that ruins a restaurant for me, I wasn’t expecting to like it.

Though I know that it’s not, Lost Roo feels like a chain restaurant. The Australian theme, the deliberate décor, the take-no-chances, generic menu; it’s all designed to have broad appeal. It could so easily be branded, reproduced in any city. Though the menu is not large by any means, it offers a wide variety of items that would seem mismatched elsewhere. And while the demographic The Roo is aiming to attract may find its offerings unique and refreshing, I can dismiss the hodge-podge of antiquated food trends and once-innovative dishes as the commonplace safe bets they’ve become. But it’s all in the execution, and tiresome or not, for what The Roo does, they do it very well.

As I mentioned, the menu aims to please all tastes. You can have diverse bar foods such as nachos, spring rolls, chicken wings or fish tacos, and mid-range, basket-served fare like sandwiches, burgers and fish and chips. They even offer a couple of steaks and a pasta for more formal appetites. The menu also aims to please all budgets, as you could do well with $9 or $20 per person. I sampled nearly half of the menu and was quite impressed overall.

I avoided the bar food apps in favor of starters more suited to my tastes. The steamer clams (a pound and a half, $10.95) are of the most common preparation: white wine, garlic, butter, served with crusty bread. Aside from an overly salty broth (such is the case most anywhere), this dish succeeded. The fisherman’s stew ($3.50, $6.95) was really more of a chowder. Clams, fish and potatoes in a cream based soup is chowder in my book. Whatever you call it, it’s certainly very good. Finished with a little cream sherry, it was not overly rich, too thick, too thin, or otherwise flawed.

A Caesar salad ($4.50 and $7.50) didn’t have any surprises – but with Caesar that’s usually a good thing – housemade dressing, and the usual romaine, croutons and Parmesan. The house salad ($4.95 and $8.95) is a retread of the same house salad that most restaurants have served in some form over the past 10 years: mixed greens, bleu cheese crumbles, candied walnuts, sliced apples and balsamic vinaigrette. The only thing missing is the dried cranberries. But it’s a successful formula employed in so many restaurants because it works. The contrast of flavors and textures in this salad beats the iceberg blend with tomato, cucumber and ranch on the side any day of the week.

Sandwiches fared very well. Hamburgers are hand-formed with a winning blend of ground chuck and short rib, cooked a standard medium, and benefit from a great bun. Offered with fries or tots, both crisp and seasoned, the Roo’s Signature burger ($8.95) is topped with cheddar, a big onion ring and L.T.O. The lamb-burger ($9.95), which features goat cheese, grilled onions, mayo and mint jelly, is also something I can recommend. The Zenner Dog’s price tag of $8.95 took me aback at first, but after it was set in front of me, I had no problem. A footlong spicy andouille sausage is split lengthwise and crisply griddled. Served on a toasted hoagie baguette with peppers and onions, mustard sauce and cheddar jack cheese, this “hot dog” was huge.

The Roo’s fish and chips dish is served in the British style, one large fillet rather than the multiple chunks you usually see stateside. Rockfish is battered with tempura, then fried to about medium-well. No dry, overcooked fish at Lost Roo. A housemade tartar sauce and a (decidedly not standard) delicious coleslaw with fennel, buttermilk and lemon zest accompany, as well as fries for $9.95. I also enjoyed two wonderful steaks. The ever-popular “flatiron” cut of beef ($16.95) was amply sized, grilled perfectly rare, sliced on a bias and sauced with chimichurri, a spicy green sauce that sounds exotic, but is certainly no longer en vogue. The marinated Angus ribeye ($18.95) was also aptly prepared, served with mashed potatoes and sauteed green beans, and topped with a balsamic reduction. The very notion that balsamic reduction on a steak is now so mainstream that you can have it at a sports bar is a sign of the times about which I’m not sure how I feel. But if it gets Joe Miller Time to try something a bit different, I guess it can’t be a bad thing.

I often judge books by their covers. It’s served me well over the years, and I find that I’m rarely mistaken. In the case of Lost Roo, it was a delight to be wrong.

The Mouth

mouth@coastweekend.com