Continental Restaurant   

Exxcellent food service and fun atmosphere, I will recommend to friends CZAR

When I came here, I did not even know it was a Starr restaurant. After finding out, I was severely disappointed. Usually, Starr restaurants have a great atmosphere, but the Continental was overly crowded. My purse was on the back of my chair and was knocked down every couple of minutes. It was hard to have any conversation what-so-ever with my friend across from me. I had heard about the signature dishes, the shoestring fries and crab pad thai - two dishes I usually love. Some of the fries were crispy, some were not, the middle was cold. The crab pad thai had a sour taste to it and was pretty gross. We ordered the dumplings as well, but I could've made those myself at home. Needless to say, we skipped dessert.

Continental is supposed to be such an awesome restaurant, but I was not impressed with their food at all. It was my first time there. What they try to do (mostly Asian/American fusion) did not work at all at Continental; I mean AT ALL! Here's why. What they claim to be "tapas" are not really tapas. Here are several reasons: Their portions are either too big, or too small (for example, the cocktail/sampling dish was too small, the "szechuan" fries was way too big). There is no theme throughout the menu. Tapas have very distinctive flavor in each dish, but at Continental, all the dishes I had were somewhat bland throughout. The seared tuna and risoto was too bland (and risoto was overcooked in my opinion); the fries were impressive in sight but annoying to eat; other dishes seem to conglomerate different asian cuisine with Neo-American classics but failed 1. to bring out the original flavors in each dish 2. to come up with new interesting flavors that marks fusion cuisine. If you want fancy, go to Morimoto or Buddakhan, where fusion food actually works. If you want grub, go to a Vietnamese place or South street where there's a lot of "specialized" grub-eateries (cheese steaks, cheese fries, hoggies, vietnamese salad bowls, etc.) And if you want to drink and want to spend that much money on drinks, go somewhere else where the ambiance is nicer and classier like ritz.

In the hustle & bustle of downtown life especially at night this place stood out like a sore thumb but was it by far no way....Friday night, kinda late and the continental was our date, from the apple martini's to the creme' brulee, even the atmosphere was something to die for. Me and my sweetie staggered in about twelve and the service was great my waiter Kevin, I wanted to take him with me he was so friendly like we none each other for years........Ive been to the continental on numerous occassions and by far this time was the best..food is always great ...why I keep going but the service usually sucks....skinny white chicks with very snobby tudes but this night was a night to be reckoned with. kudo's to the Manager on deck this night who gave me his card and told me to come by again and mention his name...now you know I am a VIP girl so a+ Jonanthan Gregory. keep up the decadent food (I had the crab cakes...uuhhh...) and the great ambiance....oooh can't forget the music.........a+ for that too.