One of the challenges of travelling on business is that you often have little control on available places to eat. The Mystic Marriott Hotel in Groton, Connecticut is just off I-95 and has restaurants within driving distance. If you don’t feel like more driving for food then the only option is the hotel restaurant – Octagon. It’s a reasonably nice space but typical of so many hotel restaurants. The alternative is to eat at the adjacent bar where you can choose from a bar snack listing or the restaurant menu. For this most recent trip, some of the dishes on the restaurant menu sounded good so that was the option to follow.
Starter was listed as scallop BLT. This was approximately two weeks after visiting Lumière so the thought of another approach to scallops and bacon was intriguing. And then it turned up. Oh dear. I wasn’t prepared for the literal interpretation of BLT. The base of the dish was a single lettuce leaf with two slices of tomato. Balanced on the two slices of tomato were three seared scallops and this was topped with another slice of tomato. Smoky bacon butter sauce was poured over the dish.
Such a shame to see a potentially good combination of flavours so poorly executed. Limp lettuce, non-juicy tomatoes and a smoky bacon sauce with no flavour. To cap it all, the scallops were not cooked sufficiently. Woeful. The chopped chives on top couldn’t save it.
Starter was listed as scallop BLT. This was approximately two weeks after visiting Lumière so the thought of another approach to scallops and bacon was intriguing. And then it turned up. Oh dear. I wasn’t prepared for the literal interpretation of BLT. The base of the dish was a single lettuce leaf with two slices of tomato. Balanced on the two slices of tomato were three seared scallops and this was topped with another slice of tomato. Smoky bacon butter sauce was poured over the dish.
Such a shame to see a potentially good combination of flavours so poorly executed. Limp lettuce, non-juicy tomatoes and a smoky bacon sauce with no flavour. To cap it all, the scallops were not cooked sufficiently. Woeful. The chopped chives on top couldn’t save it.
Main course was pan-roasted Muscovy duck breast. This was topped with Connecticut currant marmalade and Aztec rice, a blend of rice varieties and grape tomatoes. The duck was alright but was close to overwhelmed by the amount of blackcurrant marmalade on it. Big problem was the rice. What could have been an interesting blend was actually like eating sawdust so the grape tomatoes worked overtime trying to provide some moisture to the dish. It wasn’t finished. Dessert did not sound like a good idea.
Overall verdict
The Octagon is billed as a steak house and I’d hope they don’t treat their steaks as poorly as they treat their other dishes. The menu isn’t cheap so it really feels like the hotel is taking advantage of a captive audience with the poor food. Not unusual but still not pleasant when you’re on the receiving end.
Would I revisit?
I really hope not but might be out of my control.
Overall Rating - 0.5/5
The Octagon is billed as a steak house and I’d hope they don’t treat their steaks as poorly as they treat their other dishes. The menu isn’t cheap so it really feels like the hotel is taking advantage of a captive audience with the poor food. Not unusual but still not pleasant when you’re on the receiving end.
Would I revisit?
I really hope not but might be out of my control.
Overall Rating - 0.5/5