Restaurant Review: Maguire’s

The dining room of this 15-year-old restaurant has been redone, and the loyal customers love it. The low-lit room with warm woods and eye-catching oblong ceramic light fixtures makes for a sassy spot to entertain business partners or enjoy a date. The ambitious menu is suitable for either situation. Entrées include green chile lasagna, Texas red snapper, and low-country scallops with jalapeño grits—and, of course, there are also steaks. Perhaps chef Alberto Solis should scale it back and concentrate on turning out a more consistent product. An appetizer of pulled pork wontons was delivered overly fried, obliterating any chance of tasting the pork. But Solis should keep his creative salads, especially the scrumptious kale and Brussels sprouts tossed with grilled pear, kumquat, radish, candied walnuts, and tender salmon, and the Arizona, a combination of pearl couscous, organic arugula, golden raisins, roasted corn, and tomatoes with herb vinaigrette. A 12-ounce New York strip ordered medium rare was delivered medium well, and a gorgeous double-cut pork chop was also a victim of too much time on the wood grill. Maybe I should have done what comes more naturally to me here: sit at the bar, devour a great burger, and sip unpretentious white wine.