Black Point is… ritzy. That would be expected in a Hyde Park project. The bartenders hustle around in old school vests, the servers wear classic white shirts.
Still, since seafood is a headliner here, there was a faint but earnest hope of a restoration of the walk-over aquarium from the Liu Pon Xi days. No dice, that sort of decorative accent is probably too campy for this classy crew: the new operation achieves more in terms of a Snappy Supper Club.
And Black Point’s menu is equal parts land and sea creatures, so there’s more fish (and other stuff) in the sea than the long departed underfoot aquatics.
The Surf & Turf Tacos ($10) set up a natural deathmatch. Comprised of pork belly and ahi tuna, it’s not a combination, per se, but an assortment of two tuna tacos and two pork belly tacos. The land creature wins; not because of a sloppy commitment to all things bacon-related, but because of the charm of thick, lean chunks of pork belly accented with little bits of pineapple in a warm taco shell that still glistens from the fryer.
That’s not to say the tuna tacos are bad: they’re not bad at all with their mild merger of avocado and tuna. It’s just that the savory flavors of their plate-mates outshine them.
For the sushi people, there are lots and lots of sushi, sashimi and specialty rolls. An attempt to order a Shrimp California Roll ($8), yielded something with salmon (perhaps a regular California roll): humungous slices of rice rolled around silky fish, cucumber and cream cheese. It’s all very lush and nice with the bit of pickled ginger and soy sauce to accentuate the flavors, worth keeping even if it’s not shrimp.
As long as we’re hosting uncivilized deathmatches at the dinner table, might as well pit a couple of main courses against each other.
Consider the Parmesan Crusted Lemon Sole ($25). It’s not so much lemony as it is a hopelessly velvety and delicate fried specimen of fish flesh. The encrusted slabs are layered with skinny green beans (haricots verts), red and yellow tomato slices, and a big puddle of what tastes like the house béarnaise sauce. While the fish is good, the béarnaise seals the deal. It’s richer-than-rich and impossibly creamy.
Also for consideration would be a classic eight ounce Filet Mignon ($34 – unfortunately not available the day of the photo shoot). It’s a true Hyde Park steak, with the savory dry-aged flavors for which the establishment is famous. Those sorts of meat experiences wreck your palate for any other steak treatment.
Still, in a deathmatch, the fish gets to win. It’s got more stuff on the plate, a lower price, and the steakhouse is across the street anyway.
That said, for $2 the béarnaise can be added to the filet. That might be a game changer.
You can find Black Point at 570 N. High Street on the Cap. The kitchen serves daily starting at 5pm. Mondays through Thursdays, it closes at 10pm. On Fridays and Saturdays, it closes at 11pm, and on Sundays it closes at 9pm. The bar is open daily, a half-hour before dinner service starts (4:30pm).
For more information, visit www.blackpointrestaurant.com.
Photos by Mollie Lyman of www.fornixphotography.com. Photos are taken at a different time than review, so discrepancies between photos and review may occur.