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| - I often use extremes in my reviews...."best service" or "worst logo"...you get the idea. Unfortunately, I'm not concerned about overusing superlatives in this review. Instead, eating at Euro Cafe turned out to just be weird. Like seriously weird.
We walked into the cutesy gift shop/waiting area (think LGO for old ladies) and we were greeted by a very chipper young teenage hostess with whom we had some fun, pleasant banter. I was thinking....hmm, this place should be cool. Before we sat down, I glanced over to the large dessert case, which--from my friend's recommendations--was likely to be the highlight of the visit, and I was a bit surprised to see that it was half-empty. And this was at 7pm on a Saturday night.
I wasn't too worried, though. Our server seemed great at first. She actually just sat down at our table and talked all about the menu with us....she was very helpful and made a couple of recommendations. She proceeded to take our drink orders, for me a glass of the Malbec and, for my dining companion, a vanilla latte. We had to re-try on the wine because they were out of the Malbec, but no big deal, right? Our drinks arrived, and she asked us if we had decided on our entrees.This was when her attitude got a bit weird and pushy. We told her what entrees we wanted, but before we could even tell her that we also wanted to try an appetizer, she jetted away from the table. If I may add, she left the table grabbing my companion's latte without asking if she was finished (she still had about 10% of the drink she wanted to enjoy).
The server then brought our salads. Their salad is a nice, standard mixed greens and I ordered the yogurt dressing which was quite nice. We finished our salads, and being the good former server I am, I placed our plates--along with my fork--in a small pre-bussed stack on the side of our table. My friend asked me if I thought they would want me to re-use my fork, and I replied "I'm not planning on eating a $20 entree with a re-used fork". Note: I'm aware that $20 isn't like haute cuisine pricing, but I mean I just don't think you should have to lick the dressing off of a salad fork to eat your entree at that price point. What happened next was very weird. The waitress stopped by, saw my dirty fork on top of my pre-bussing pile, then proceeded to--while I sat there perfectly still and silent--take my dirty fork off of my salad plate and move it over to my place setting next to my clean knife. Weird.
Then our entrees came. Well, they were really tossed at us more than anything. She dropped the pork tenderloin in front of me and the almond tortellini in front of my friend, which is especially odd since the server had made such a big deal about me being a vegetarian. I'm not surprised, though. I had--just five minutes earlier--seen a full-on food auction at the table next to us because the server had no idea who ordered what. Anyway, back to our food. Our server just dropped the food and walked away before we could say anything....not asking "does everything look ok" or "is there anything else I can get for you". Of course, it wasn't the end of the world for us to have to switch our plates, it was just really weird.
The good news is that my Almond Tortellini was amazing. It was full of fun surprises like sunflower seeds and pine nuts, and the sauce was heavenly. The tortellini were the perfect texture and consistency. My dining companion ordered the tenderloin, and although I couldn't try any of it, I couldn't help but notice that the amount of sawing it required to cut off a bite was more reminiscent of a pork chop than a tenderloin. In spite of the dryness of the meat, it looked to be a nice balance of flavors, with a cherry sauce, grilled onions, and horseradishy mashed potatoes. The odd service continued, though. No one ever checked back to ask about the food, and when my friend's water went empty it was a full 8 1/2 minutes for the hostess to finally come by and refill it. Even more odd was that once we had clearly finished our entrees, it was a long time before anyone came by to take away our plates. It was 18 minutes between our last bite and when our server came back (yes, I was keeping track by now, because the whole thing was just so odd). She offered dessert, but by this time, we both just wanted to leave, so we asked for the check.
When she brought back the check and my card, she suddenly was miss personality, telling us how glad she was that we came and how much she looks forward to seeing us again. Honestly, I wish she had been so helpful when we were actually still having our meal.
Overall, the environment at this restaurant is just plain weird and uncomfortable. I would love to eat the Tortellini again, but if the price for enjoying that great dish is sitting through another hour of awkwardness in this restaurant, I'll just have to go without
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