Saddle up! We’re off to Cincinnati’s northern suburbs where subdivisions and strip malls are chewing up fields and forests at a staggering clip, bound for the recently opened Polo Grille on Mason-Montgomery Road.
Located in a new mall in Mason, Deerfield Town Center, the restaurant is decorated with polo memorabilia in tribute to the Cincinnati Polo Club, which occupied the site for over 20 years. The Polo Grille is run by Tavern Restaurant Group, the local outfit that owns deSha’s American Tavern, Nicholson’s Tavern & Pub and The Pub at Rookwood Mews.
Typically when I review a restaurant, I like to keep my party small, recruiting just a friend or two to join me. For this review, however, in the spirit of the Polo Grille, I threw a team together, composed of family here in town and friends I hadn’t seen in a while. We ended up being five — affording me an opportunity to poke into multiple plates and get lots of input from my opinionated entourage.
The menu at Polo Grille is focused, taking up just two sides of one sheet, refreshing brevity in an age when menus often look like phone books. The offering is New American Cuisine with an interesting twist, incorporating elements from the cuisines of polo-playing countries like Argentina and England.
We started with the Tandoori Chicken ($8), marinated grilled chicken tenders, over a cucumber yogurt salad. Served on skewers, the chicken was tender and nicely flavored, with a bit of heat that was perfectly offset by the refreshing chunks of cucumbers and tomato tossed in yogurt.
The Oven Baked Goat Cheese ($9) was unusual, with the goat cheese in a pool of roasted tomato sauce baked in the oven. Although this dish was tasty, the cheese had completely melted, mixing with the tomatoes to create a runny pink sauce that was awkward to get onto the accompanying flatbread.
Among the entrées, the Steak Churrasco ($19), strips of marinated grilled skirt steak with garlic chimichurri sauce, tomato salsa, yucca fries and crisp string beans, was a highlight. The sauce (a garlicky Argentinean specialty that usually contains chopped parsley and hot peppers) imparted a great flavor to the tender steak. The yucca fries sounded exotic, but were heavy and sodden, and most remained uneaten.
The Cedar Plank Salmon ($18) was also quite good. Prepared with a brown sugar glaze, it was roasted on a cedar plank and topped with ginger orange aioli. It came with smashed red potatoes and string beans. The fish was moist, perfectly cooked and tasted very fresh.
Not as successful was the Mission Fig Pork Loin ($16), a grilled center cut marinated pork loin with mission fig sauce. Unfortunately, the pork had spent too long on the grill; a strong charred flavor completely overwhelmed.
For dessert, we split a piece of New York Cheesecake ($6.50) and the Dulce de Leche Café ($6). The ample slice of cheesecake was light and smooth in texture. The Dulce de Leche Café was a likeable (but not extraordinary) concoction of ice cream, dulce de leche, chocolate-covered espresso beans and whipped cream.
Service was friendly and efficient. Bread and water arrived immediately, and our food arrived promptly with good pacing on appetizers and entrées. This might have had something to do with the impressively high-tech wireless Palm Pilots carried by servers: With the flick of a stylus, our orders hit the kitchen before our server even left our table.
There was one problem: On the Saturday night we went, the Polo Grill was louder than a clattering string of polo horses. The restaurant has a high ceiling, with suspended speakers pumping music into the bar and dining area. Loud music, of course, means people have to talk louder to hear each other, making things worse. When I followed up on this issue, I learned that the owners are still experimenting with the right music levels; I was graciously thanked for my feedback.
The Polo Grille has a large bar area with an extensive offering: 18 wines by the glass, a large selection of beer and Scotch, and over 20 exotic martinis.
Occupying a place somewhere between fine and casual dining, Polo Grille offers interesting, quality food in a contemporary setting. It also stands out in the newly minted, anonymous exurban sprawl that surrounds it by providing, through its polo theme and memorabilia, a sense of meaning and connection to the past that is rare in the new boomtown suburbs blossoming around Cincinnati. ©
The Polo Grille
Go: 5035 Deerfield Blvd., Mason
Call: 513-701-POLO
Hours: 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Monday-Thursday (kitchen closes at 10 p.m.); 11 a.m.-midnight Friday-Saturday (kitchen closes at 11 p.m.); noon- 9:30 p.m. Sunday
Prices: Moderate to expensive
Payment: Major credit cards
Red Meat Alternatives: Numerous salads, pizzas, fish and chicken options
Accessibility: Parking, front door, bathrooms are all accessible.
Grade: B
This article appears in Sep 22-28, 2004.