So Restaurant-Bar

  • 3610 Kavanaugh Blvd. Little Rock, AR 72205
  • 501-663-1464
  • Fax 501-663-1464
  • Visit website

Description

The Hillcrest restaurant, which opened in January 2006 as a snooty oyster bar, has successfully weathered a rough patch and a change or two of chef. The food is good; although the prices keep it safely in the haute-cuisine category, the atmosphere is a little more casual. Service has improved.
The menu is now more balanced; fewer than half the entrees are seafood. Yes, you can still order the $105 Grand-Lux raw-bar platter of lobster claw, crab legs, oysters, mussels and shrimp, but it's no longer the restaurant's raison d'etre. And only a fraction of the big menu board in the dining room is devoted to the day's variety of fresh oysters; its focus now is on happy-hour specials.
The bar is still the first thing you'll notice when you enter (through a wrought-iron outer gate and down a short corridor); it occupies about half the space of the main dining area, which is dominated by dark-wood banquette seating under stony walls.
A front dining area, lit by a bay window and pin spots, offers a brighter, cheerier alternative. The back patio is heated but for the present is primarily a refuge for smokers until seasonal temperatures climb.
(Speaking of climbing, the kitchen is downstairs, so everything you eat upstairs requires a little leg work from your server. Remember that when you tip.)

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