Review: Pinchers will do, in a pinch
The headline says it all. Is the food bad? Not at all. The service. Satisfactory. The ambience, Key West chic.
The best came first, with the buffalo shrimp appetizer – freshly breaded shrimp, deep fried ad tossed in Pinchers “ultimate wing sauce” and served with blue cheese and celery. There’s no bite to this buffalo, but the taste is amazing.
For $5 additional, I added a soup to my entrée; my dining companion added a salad.
My ask was the chicken and andouille gumbo, which is described as “Roux-based with fresh chicken, Louisiana andouille sausage, chicken stock, onions, bell peppers, garlic and Cajun spices served over rice.”
Even with all those flavors, to my amazement, I could taste the rice – and rice doesn’t normally have much of a taste. I have to ask, is that intentional? Again, this dish had no bite, but I also had no complaints.
The house salad came with a choice of dressings, and the blue cheese from the appetizer apparently bared repeating. The salad was fresher in taste than appearance, and was described as … you guessed it, average. The dressing saved the day.
For my main course, the shrimp bared repeating. This time getting the scampi, which came with a choice of either bow tie or angel-hair pasta. I went with the latter.
The shrimp were indeed fresh and tasty, and the angel hair was literally drenched in butter and sauce; so much so that I left the bottom bites on the plate.
It came with bread, which was chewy and could have used more toasting; but it felt like the way it came was intentional and “their thing.”
My companion for the evening choose the blackened mahi mahi platter for his entrée. It comes with a choice of two sides. He chose the garlic mashed potatoes and, being a friend to all things starchy, the rice.
He described the potatoes as not-very garlicky; but gave high marks for the use of real potatoes (skins included). The rice: “good.” And the fish, lacking flavor given that it was blackened.
So all in all, Pinchers is a solid choice and will do, in a pinch. Especially if you are craving spicy, but really don’t need to be eating spicy.
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Pinchers
591 South Collier Boulevard, Marco Island
In Tin City, Naples
Locations in Bonita Springs, Fort Myers and throughout Florida
www.pinchersusa.com