Tony P's
Admiralty Way, in Marina del Rey
Tony P's was our 2nd location change for dinner with Owen's family - originally it was Cheesecake Factory but they had an hour long wait. No one should wait an hour for Cheesecake Factory, so we were told to meet up at The Wherehouse...then last minute, told to go to Tony P's, which I had never been to before. When I read the Tony P's sign - "Dockside Grill" - all I could think about was the GI Joe Fensler Film dub that had made its rounds around the internet a few years ago...here it is if you haven't seen it:



DOCKSIDE BARS? (motions with hands) Anyways, aside from the joking, the family was already seated in the bar area - a noisy room with a ton of beer-on-tap handles displayed all over the walls. Very sports bar style. HD screens lined the wall, blasting sports channels. As we sat down, the waitress brought over more hot breadsticks - these were great, they seemed freshly baked, with a few salt bits scattered across the tops and buttery greasy, which wasn't bad in this case. They had ordered before we got there, a plate of boneless buffalo wings with ranchy blue cheesy dip. (sorry no picture!) These were good if you dunked the nugget of chicken fully in the dip. Straightforward bar type food.
But enough with the appetizers, let's go on to the entrees. Owen decided on a Salmon Fettucine Alfredo. This was frankly, a tastless mess. Noodles were coated in a cream sauce that I swear someone made with a base of nondairy creamer, then realized that it was creamer, then threw a bunch of half and half in there at the end, so it was creamy but oddly so. The mushrooms were plentiful but added no substance to this tureen of gummy noodles. Green spinachy bits rounded out the meal. I didn't try any of the salmon but Owen proclaimed it was overcooked - a shame. This gave Owen a stomachache- twice (he ate the leftovers and had a stomachache then, as well.) Dockside bars, indeed. Not my food! This is Owen's dad's burger. Pretty straightforward looking. He seemed to like it enough.

This was my Salmon BLT. I hurredly chose this because the waitress was in a rush to get our order in, as everyone else at the table had already ordered. Let's start with the sides - the fries were alright, nothing to complain about here but I think I like steak fries better than the shoestring. I'll eat both but it's a preference thing. The "coleslaw" was untouchable. I wouldn't eat this if you paid me. Then again I'm not much of a coleslaw fan, something about the sweet-buttermilkish flavor with cabbage and carrots...who invented this? It's sick and twisted. I remember my first bite of coleslaw - it was from KFC, yep, the Colonel's coleslaw. I remember taking a bite and going, bleck! And my dad was like, it's good for you it's vegetables. And I'm thinking, vegetables that have gone bad!

Here's a close up of the Salmon BLT's innards. This wasn't a bad sandwich. But it wasn't a good one, either. The most disappointing part was the salmon itself. The overcooked pitiful salmon meat had been tortured into submission. The bacon was alright, but very fatty. It added enough taste to the sandwich to not fall into the same pitfall as Owen's alfredo. The bread was fluffy and huge, but disappointing in comparison to the delicious breadsticks we had at the beginning of the meal. Tomato and lettuce were sufficient rabbit food.

For a dive bar, I should have expected as much, food wise. But go to another dive bar that specializes in anything but seafood.