Un-Happy Hour at Latitude 26 in Naples

Latitude 26 is a restaurant located in the Hyatt House in Naples, Florida.  As the astute reader may surmise, Latitude 26 is one set of coordinates of the geographic coordinate system encompassing Naples, FL.

The restaurant and hotel have been open since March of 2016. Since I always love a good happy hour, my dining companion (DC) and I decided to give it a try.

Latitude 26 is a bit confusing as when you walk into the restaurant, you think you’re in the hotel bar, but you are not. None the less, the bar/restaurant is quite commodious with plenty of seating both at “high tops” and at the bar.

My DC and I ordered a few things off of the happy hour menu. Prices for food during that time range from $5-12.00. Happy Hour runs from 4-7 PM.

They also feature a range of discounted beverages, such as beer, wine and a few house liquors. I enjoy a good glass of wine and decided to take advantage of the house Canvas Wines served here. Canvas California Wines are wines that were developed especially for Hyatt Hotels by Michael Mondavi Wineries. I opted for their Chardonnay. I found this wine not of my taste, quite undrinkable and for the cognoscenti, way too much malolactic fermentation. As such, I sent it back. It was water from here on out.

At this point I felt sorry for the server, as he had to accommodate probably the 15-20 people present when DC and I were there. It took quite a bit to get his attention and get our order taken.

The first thing we tried were the fish tacos. Mahi Mahi was served on a flour tortilla, cilantro lime slaw, pico de gallo, a blend of Cheddar/Monterey Jack cheese and a chipotle aioli (mayonnaise sauce). A proper fish taco is served on a corn tortilla, anything else should be suspect. Although not bad, unfortunately, this dish was the highlight of the meal. It was somewhat down hill from here.

The Gochujang chicken bites were next. Gochujang is sort of the spicy miso of Korean cooking. This dish came with breaded chicken bites presumably coated in gochujang, Thai aioli, pickled onion, cilantro, lime and sesame seeds. The dish looked appealing, however one taste of the chicken bites proved otherwise. I do not know if you have ever had chicken nuggets in a grocery or convenience store that had been under a heat lamp for much, much too long but the texture of the dish was reminiscent of that.

We then finished with the margherita pizza. The “pizza” came with tomatoes, mozzarella, basil pesto and a balsamic drizzle. The crust of the “pizza” was well hydrated, almost like bread. I could not help but think this was frozen crust that was microwaved. I hoped not and although ok, this dish really didn’t work for me as all I could think of was microwaved frozen pizza dough. A disappointment.

I love a good happy hour. Unfortunately, happy hour at Latitude 26 just did not do it for me. Although not the server’s fault, I found the service lacking. Unfortunately, the food also had much to be desired. Would I go back? Perhaps but there are so many other better happy hours in town to choose from.

That’s that for another post on Forks.