Since I got to Wake Forest three years ago, there has always been a closed restaurant in the front of the Thruway Shopping center . Seeing that the Loop and Carving Board are always busy, I often wondered what was keeping the old Houlihan's location from being occupied. Needless to say, when I heard Bonefish Grill was coming in as the tenant this summer, I was very excited.

On my birthday, Bonefish had been open to the public for less than a week, but I rounded up a couple of my friends and went out to celebrate. Bonefish is a chain restaurant owned by Outback Steakhouse, yet my friends and I had never been to one, and we were certainly in for a treat.

The hour wait on a Thursday night seemed a little extreme, but it had been open for only a few days. Being my 21st birthday, we decided to pass some of the wait at the very crowded bar. Bonefish has a great wine list, and also has several specialty martinis such as sour apple or the rich sounding chocolate martini. The bar is spacious enough that many people chose to eat there. The women next to us were eating the Bang Bang Shrimp appetizer, and it certainly was mouth watering enough to excite us for our meal.

We got seated, and were thrilled by the friendly and attentive service that we received. All of the staff wear white chef jackets, giving them all a professional appearance. Of course, we were especially excited that our waiter when hearing it was my 21st birthday acted like he was going to strip for us. Dining out is always more fun when you have good natured waiters! For having been open such a short time, the waiters were very knowledgeable about the restaurant and made some terrific recommendations. The one drawback to our seating was that the restaurant is rather dark. The layout is very conducive to having smoking and non-smoking sections with walls dividing different sections.

As the name Bonefish Grill might suggest, it is a fish restaurant. However, they do have grilled specialties like Chicken Marsala, Filet Mignon and Fontina (pork) chops which I have been told are to die for. Like Macaroni Grill, the server starts out by providing the olive oil and seasonings for your bread. My friends and I were excited by the bread. It is certainly not as good as some restaurants, but having waited for almost an hour we were starving and ready to dive in!

On this evening my friends and I all decided to try fish. There is a long list of fish ranging from the more typical salmon to the Atlantic Swordfish. You can choose one of four toppings for your fish, Lemon Butter Sauce, Lime Tomato Garlic Sauce, Warm Mango Salsa or Pan Asian style. Our waiter recommended the Salmon cooked Pan Asian style which both of my friends decided sounded like a great suggestion. He was right, as they found the fish perfectly cooked with just the right amount of teriyaki sauce to make it delicious. I had the Grouper with Lime Tomato Garlic Sauce. I found it to be one of the best pieces of fish that I have had so far away from an ocean.




The meals are served with your choice of a house or caesar salad, fresh vegetables and a side item. I highly recommend going out of your comfort zone and trying their house salad. In addition to the typical greens and tomatoes, the salad also includes Kalamata olives, heart of palm and pine nuts. It is tossed with a citrus herb vinaigrette. I do not usually enjoy vinaigrette dressings and was a little wary when the waiter's list of ingredients included orange juice, but it was well worth it. I think the salad was my favorite part of the meal, and I certainly enjoyed the fish. I elected to try the Potatoes Au Gratin which were good, but nothing terribly exciting.

Overall, my friends and I really enjoyed our experience at Bonefish Grill. The only drawback to Bonefish from my point of view is the price, while well worth it, the prices especially of seafood may be a little high for the typical college budget. I think my friends may have been disappointed that the wait staff did nothing to embarrass me about the fact that it was my birthday. Our waiter did give us directions to a house party going on that night. While we thought about attending, we decided to stick with our original plans instead.