Ilios: Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort: Fortlauderdale, Florida

So here I am in Fort Lauderdale on a Thursday night . . . what else is new. Been in Florida for a week, and didn't want to go out of the hotel for dinner, so I got on the elevator and rode down to Ilios. The menu looked interesting in a fusion-ish kind of way, so it seemed worth a try. Its an "interesting" environment . . . these weird faux bamboo things as a kind of room divider . . . some beautiful glass . . . bad fabric on the cushions . . . strange bar seating . . . BUT some friendly people behind the bar. But on to the food, which sounded like a good thing, but . . .

First up was the BBQ shrimp with avacado salad . . . this was just weird. There were three large shrimp, but two of them were shelled and the third had shell and head intact, was that a choice or mistake. Either was it was strange. The avacado salad was really just chunky guacamole, not particularly well seasoned. Some chips would have been a nice addition. Next up a 'tomato bisque' . . . now when I think of bisque I think that there will be some dairy products involved. This was like eating marinara sauce, perhaps just out of a jar from the supermarket. It was billed to be served with a 'proscuito profiterole' . . . which was a tiny cold-cheese-filled cream puff thing, with no trace of ham . . . and tepid at best. Not interesting, and again it was was like pasta sauce in a bowl. Finally, the best of the evening, was a blood orange and pistachio salad. Interesting flavors, fresh and clean, and a nice composition. A fairly strange meal at the bar, but nice guys behind the bar to chat with, so it wasn't a total loss.

All in all, this place was a South Beach wanna be . . . Fort Lauderdale as the step sister to glamerous Miami. A strange duo spining boring tunes, looking like small fish in an even smaller pond, bad lighting and all. This place should just admit that its not South Beach and go with it . . . trying way to hard to be hip and not making it. All in all an OK evening, weird but OK. Would I go again? Perhaps for the entertainment value?


EatHereOrNot: MAYBE