Hi all. Lindsey and I had dinner at Sella last night - it opened a little over a week ago and normally I like to wait a while before trying a new place but we are only here for another few days and wanted to see what they had done with Maya's.
Nico, who manages Shellona and Tamarin is also here. They are all owned (or operated?) by an Israeli-owned restaurant group with restaurants in Paris and London and other places. The concept here is high-end Israeli/Mediterranean dining and they pull it off very well.
They did a lot of renovation since Maya's and the decor is "bohemian chic", beautiful, and elegant, with white table cloth service (and literally white table cloths and traditional French server attire). They added a bar to the left as you walk in facing the water view which is a very nice touch - also added one on the right facing the open kitchen area so you can watch the food being prepared and plated. Bathrooms re-done and modernized. In order to get more people in the space they did the same thing Sand Bar did when they renovated and placed banquettes on the wall overlooking the harbor so that many people don't get that wonderful view while dining. The tables were packed very closely together except for a few larger banquettes along the back wall - those would be the preferred area IMO - although in the future I'd most prefer to sit at the bar with the view but I didn't check to see if they serve dinner at it.
As you might suspect everything on the menu is more expensive than it was when it was Maya's. The place was packed (80-100ish people) with all seats full at the first seating (730) and I suspect was packed at the second seating at 930 as well. The first seating was quiet and I'm told the idea is that the second seating is meant to be loud and raucous with the music turned up around 10p and people dancing, etc, similar to La Petite Plage, la Guerite, Bagatelle, et al.
They serve 2 types of house made bread with 3 choices of accompaniment, several mezze-style appetizers sized for sharing, and they had approx 8 main dishes and 2 specials. Everything we tried was good and I thought the chicken main course was great. Service was speedy and competent and pacing was just right.
A special treat was that Maya and Randy were sitting near us - it was also their first time trying the restaurant. It was great seeing them.
This restaurant continues the island trend that has been happening where a local operator with more simple cuisine and quiet island ambience is replaced with a sophisticated and well-financed group-backed restaurant with much higher "charge-per-customer" goals and a party-style atmosphere (at least party-style after 930p). Others on here can opine whether that is a good thing or not - but whatever it is it will continue because the owners of the buildings push for ever-increasing rents - and so it goes. I can say that we enjoyed it, we will return, and we were very happy we dined during the "quiet seating" lol.
Nico, who manages Shellona and Tamarin is also here. They are all owned (or operated?) by an Israeli-owned restaurant group with restaurants in Paris and London and other places. The concept here is high-end Israeli/Mediterranean dining and they pull it off very well.
They did a lot of renovation since Maya's and the decor is "bohemian chic", beautiful, and elegant, with white table cloth service (and literally white table cloths and traditional French server attire). They added a bar to the left as you walk in facing the water view which is a very nice touch - also added one on the right facing the open kitchen area so you can watch the food being prepared and plated. Bathrooms re-done and modernized. In order to get more people in the space they did the same thing Sand Bar did when they renovated and placed banquettes on the wall overlooking the harbor so that many people don't get that wonderful view while dining. The tables were packed very closely together except for a few larger banquettes along the back wall - those would be the preferred area IMO - although in the future I'd most prefer to sit at the bar with the view but I didn't check to see if they serve dinner at it.
As you might suspect everything on the menu is more expensive than it was when it was Maya's. The place was packed (80-100ish people) with all seats full at the first seating (730) and I suspect was packed at the second seating at 930 as well. The first seating was quiet and I'm told the idea is that the second seating is meant to be loud and raucous with the music turned up around 10p and people dancing, etc, similar to La Petite Plage, la Guerite, Bagatelle, et al.
They serve 2 types of house made bread with 3 choices of accompaniment, several mezze-style appetizers sized for sharing, and they had approx 8 main dishes and 2 specials. Everything we tried was good and I thought the chicken main course was great. Service was speedy and competent and pacing was just right.
A special treat was that Maya and Randy were sitting near us - it was also their first time trying the restaurant. It was great seeing them.
This restaurant continues the island trend that has been happening where a local operator with more simple cuisine and quiet island ambience is replaced with a sophisticated and well-financed group-backed restaurant with much higher "charge-per-customer" goals and a party-style atmosphere (at least party-style after 930p). Others on here can opine whether that is a good thing or not - but whatever it is it will continue because the owners of the buildings push for ever-increasing rents - and so it goes. I can say that we enjoyed it, we will return, and we were very happy we dined during the "quiet seating" lol.
