Fifty Six & Five restaurant review (Carmel Valley)

Got a Living Social deal for "Fifty Six and Five" (the new name for Sydney's in the Doubletree Del Mar) and decided to give it a try.

Not a bad destination with a toddler, especially with a deal. Beautiful decor, but lots of room to run around the lobby and to the pool area to blow off steam between courses. The staff was very friendly (ST was very tickled when after dressing himself in his best collar shirt, the room service staff keep greeting him with a cheerful "Good evening, sir" or "Hello, my friend" as he raced around the lobby). It was generally relaxing, and nice to get a glass of wine with some decent food (I got grilled halibut tacos with a somewhat interesting chipotle sauce, CH got some chicken).

It certainy is not perfect. They screwed up CH's order at first and he had to wait while we ate. The service was friendly but slow. The salad was trying to be better than it was (the restaurant's concept is farm to table - the salad was like spring mix from Ralph's with a bottled red wine vinaigrette). Ditto the food.

I don't think we'd return paying full price (ie, $19 for 3 fish tacos, $7.50 for a glass of ok Kendall Jackson chardonnay). But for a deal we'd consider it; it was a nice change of pace on an evenine we didn't feel like cooking!