THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Polo's Restaurant

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Polo's Restaurant Restaurant Review:

The Fairmount Hotel is a local landmark for two reasons: its astonishing move on rollers to its present location and its role in the development, under chef Bruce Auden, of Southwestern cuisine in San Antonio. Polo's kitchen, in fact, spawned many of the city's current hot chefs, but they, along with Auden, moved on, and a fall from grace inevitably occurred. With different owners, the hotel is showing signs of a renaissance---especially apparent in the upholstered piano bar, always a sophisticated enclave in a town with few such big-city settings. More change is afoot in the dining room, where a pared-down menu offers as possible starters appealingly flaky strudel stuffed with sautéed mushrooms, and creamy poblano soup strung with Chihuahua cheese. Prosciutto-wrapped towers of lamb loin, presented in perfect cylinders, lack only a more meaningful demi-glace at dinner; grilled halibut, perfectly done, needs only to balance its ponzu glaze with a wasabi-spiked honey mustard crust. At lunch, when light floods the dining room, a sandwich of grilled chicken with Greek salad and a cup of roasted tomato soup typify midday's unpretentious approach.