Here s a little challenge while awaiting your food order at the Elephant Bar in Westfield Franklin Park. Open the oversized menu and try to add up the number of times you come across the words adventure and anything to do with fire.
The task is more daunting than you might think. For example, the menu cover announces A Dining Adventure, and inside are categories labeled adventure side salads, shrimp adventures, frozen adventures, paradise adventures, and so on. As for fire references, the menu is ablaze with them: fire-pot, fire-grilled, fire-roasted, wok-fired, fiery kung poo, and but of course fiery adventure.
Sounds to me like the workings of a diabolical focus group deciding which words would best whet appetites at the jungle-infested Elephant Bar. It s a national chain that promises to take diners from the concrete jungle to a taste safari, complete with an animal-skin carpeting design, palm trees, and hanging raffia fans rippling the air in unison from the ceiling.
Naturally, African bull elephants hold center stage, raising their trunks in greeting over the attractive circular bar in the middle of the place. The garish menu presents a dizzying array of dishes that encompass the Tropics, Pacific Rim, Hawaii, New Orleans, and heartland America.
It s difficult to decide what to order from the competing possibilities. But despite the confusion and silly use of all those infernal adjectives, the food proves to be pretty good, as well as reasonably priced.
Under the slogan, Everything s different here, the Elephant Bar serves up such dishes as Miso Yaki pork steaks, Baja Bite fish tacos, catfish with tropical fruit salsa, Bangkok pad Thai, and chocolate molten lava cake.
Kona and Szechwan barbecue sauces, JamaicaMojo salad dressing, soy, and baked tofu are among the staples, as well as a roasted macadamia nut buerre blanc sauce promoted as a fusion of tastes from Hawaii, Asia, and France. The man behind these concoctions is Reinhard Dorfhuber, the chain s executive chef, who is prominently pictured on the full-color menu.
On our visits, several dishes stood out, beginning with a tasty bowl of homemade chicken noodle soup ($2.95) and an exceptional E-Bar artichoke dip appetizer ($7.25) that also contains tomato, cheese, and spinach served with warm tortilla chips.
Lunch brought a teriyaki-marinated mahi mahi sandwich ($7.25), a tangy fillet on a toasted wheat bun with tropical fruit salsa; a terrific Philly cheesesteak sandwich ($7.25) bursting with meat, Italian peppers, onions, mushrooms, and provolone on a roll, and an elephant-sized cheeseburger ($6.75) with a double-dose of special sauce (think Big Mac) that unfortunately caused the insides to dump onto the plate. When will restaurants learn how to make a proper burger?
For dinner, the grilled macadamia nut salmon ($13.95), accompanied by vegetables and a mound of white rice, was exceptionally tender, falling apart at the touch of the fork. Best of all was the spicy jambalaya, a sensational rice dish packed with shrimp, chicken, andouille sausage, sweet peppers, and Cajun sauce. Priced at $11.95, it s one of many bargains that help account for the crowds on most days.
Caution: The mall traffic means that you may have to circle the lots a few times to find a parking space near the main entrance.
Contact Bill of Fare at fare@theblade.com
First Published October 26, 2006, 12:01 p.m.
