With its last food-oriented incarnation scampering to a smaller space around the corner, Rhino Bar, 1234 Locust St. , is the latest restaurant to open up in the space formerly known as Fish, Q Lounge and Bump. And, at this point, we’re beginning to believe that the space is slightly cursed. Ever since Q Lounge vacated the space, which always benefited from the prime location and great view, something has lingered in the air of that address that prevents whomever is occupying it to lock into perfection.
When we visited Fish, great servers were hamstrung by the pace at which the kitchen delivered the food. At Rhino it seemed like the opposite: Food came out at a steady clip but our server wasn’t as attentive to us or knowledgeable about the menu. And this is with only three or four tables occupied the whole time.
While Fish had a high-minded menu, Rhino goes for gastropub comfort food, an approach that has its strengths and weaknesses.
The fried green tomatoes ($5) were spectacular — crispy with just the right amount of spice. The French onion soup ($8) was impressive in size and assertive in flavor.
Other small plates were almost, but not quite, there. The Japanese meatballs ($6) were a bit overdone but otherwise tasty. The confit chicken drumettes ($8) were falling-off-the-bone tender and crispy, and the potato skins ($7) took bacon out of the mix in favor of a more interesting take with chorizo. Both dishes were fine but would have been stellar had the chef been a little more adventurous with the spicing.
The lobster grilled cheese ($14) really needs to change its name to lobster and cheese sandwich, as the term grilled cheese writes a mental check this sandwich can’t cash. Grilled cheese invokes a creamy, cheesy textural ideal that the sandwich does not have. Oh yes, there is plenty of lobster and diced green tomatoes in there, but the fontina cheese doesn’t do a good job of pulling everything together and ends up getting pushed out of the way by the other elements in the sandwich.
Adding insult to injury is the fact that we absolutely loved the fries ($3 by themselves and worth every penny) that came with the sandwich. They were perfect and quite possibly the best thing we had all evening.
But we’re willing to bet that the dessert we had, the key lime torte ($6), was store-bought.
Given the history of the space, we can assure you there’s enough decent food and drink at Rhino Bar to keep us busy until the next restaurant opens.