Side Dish

Built on the site of the famous old ’40s outdoor burger bar called
the Hut, the Top of the Point is located on the penthouse floor of
Phillips Point, with 180-degree views of the Intracoastal and Palm
Beach. It’s operated as an outpost of the Breakers Hotel. Just the
same, it isn’t as far away as you might imagine from that old shake
shack. In fact, the menu is eccentrically imagined comfort food,
notably a “wedding platter” appetizer of pigs-in-blankets and Swedish
meatballs; lobster pot pie for $42; and chicken and dumplings, plank
salmon, flatbreads, Kobe burgers, and salads. Roast chicken with
broccolini and large-grained couscous, flatbread scattered with
artichokes and goat cheese, and arugula salad with warm mushrooms is
all edible if not far above average (heavy on the pepper and salt). The
flatbread was soggy under a layer of goat cheese (goat cheese is the
go-to ingredient in this kitchen), and all of it is middling expensive.
But the service is amusing: one waiter executing every rearrangement of
flatware with little flourishes and wrist flicks, even pulling off a
fancy heel turn (think early Temptations choreography) as he sashayed
around our table. Somebody loves his job. Gail Shepherd

“East Meets West: They Party.” So goes the tagline at Kona Grill, one
of 20 restaurants in this nationwide chain, the latest of which has
moved into CityPlace. Unfortunately, the fateful meeting is more like a
train wreck than a party. When Asian fusion collides with Southwest
flavors and ingredients, you get dishes like an avocado egg roll
($9.75), where hunks of avocado flesh are stuffed, along with strips of
sun-dried tomato and chopped red onion, into a wonton skin and deep
fried. Dip this mess into the honey-cilantro sauce provided and you’ve
got an airtight argument against multiculturalism. A Kona pizza
($10.25) is no better: the “andouille sausage” is a laughable
incarnation of sliced hot dog, the mushrooms come straight from the
can, and the lackluster pizza dough is premade far in advance and
presumably even farther away. These delicacies are available for
half-price at happy hour and reverse happy hour daily (3 to 7 p.m. and
two hours before closing, nightly), which may make them marginally more
palatable. Items on the regular menu include salads, sandwiches,
blackened catfish tacos, macadamia nut chicken, and Big Island meatloaf
(incorporating that same faux “andouille.”) Gail Shepherd