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Runway 84
330 Florida State rd. 84
Fort Lauderdale, 33315
954-467-8484
Runway-84.com
Lunch, Tuesday-Friday
Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday
This airline-themed Italian eatery and lively bar with a three-decade history has an enthusiastic following. After a recent visit, I cannot say I am a member of that following.
Oil was in abundance in places it should not have been and was missing
in another. This sad experience began with tasteless, slightly burned bread accompanied
by a small dish of oil for dipping. We could not find the oil; the dish was
mostly grated Parmesan with barely enough liquid to grace one slice of bread.
Bread is usually the first sign of what’s to follow; this time was no
exception.
Enter an appetizer of clams oreganata drowning in oil that should have come with the bread. Oil was not the only problem; the woebegone clams tasted as if they had been resurrected from the
freezer. Onward. Mussels were delivered in a “sauce” that tasted more like
water with a few dollops of tomato paste. It was miserably tasteless as was
the house salad served with a gimmicky piece of salami holding a single sorrowful
olive. Iceberg lettuce, a pepperconi here, a slice of tomato there, all drizzled
in a bland dressing fit for a bottle off a grocery store shelf.
Denouement of this meal misery: two plates of pasta overloaded
with oil. The rigatoni was perfectly prepared but swimming in cheap olive
oil. So much broccoli rabe covered one dish that the pasta was
hard to find. My plate was topped with a mushy mess of cauliflower and sliced
mushrooms.
Runway 84 may be popular for their free meatballs on
Thursday nights and grossly huge portions every night. It’s not cheap however;
our pasta dishes were about $25 each.
Tags: Fort Lauderdale restaurants, Italian restaurants in Fort Lauderdale, restaurants near Fort Lauderdale airport
