The Grill Awards

The Grill Restaurant Review:

Forty 1º North Marina Resort is an upscale boutique property on the Newport waterfront and both the hotel and its restaurant are striving for top quality in a town where people know the difference between, say, a Hilton and a Ritz-Carlton. They’re not there yet with the service, at least on the restaurant side, but the food is good and the waterfront setting exceptional. The lunch menu at The Grill is more fun than sophisticated, which is appropriate for the dockside location (even if those are mega-yachts parked outside, not cabin cruisers). Lobster sliders are meaty and smartly paired with piping-hot truffle fries. There’s a raw bar too, and you also can order a lunch-size New York strip steak if you want more than just a sandwich. Many of the same selections reappear at dinner. The dry-aged steak on one visit was skillfully prepared to medium-rare and was so good we neglected to request the choice of five accompanying sauces (blue cheese, béarnaise, red wine and shallot, green peppercorn or house-made steak sauce). Caramelized day-boat scallops, lacking seasoning, were disappointing. Cocktails are hand-made and will set you back $12-$15 each --- worth it, in our opinion, for such entertaining concoctions as the On the Docks, with 10 Cane Rum, lime juice, simple syrup and puréed passion fruit. Seasonally, food can be ordered at the waterfront bar pavilion, a popular Newport gathering place for the well-heeled.