| rev:text
| - Three stars is a rating reserved for a place I would return to.
Hearthstone is, unfortunately, not one of those places.
My mother received a gift certificate for her hard work to come dine at this 'fine' establishment. However, because she works so hard, she has no time to use it and thus this duty fell onto me: her eldest. I was delighted to come with my better half so we could do dinner and a movie.
Movie was great, and we hoped to end dinner on an even higher note to round out our night but it was not to be so.
Entering the establishment you will see an eclectic collection of items to your right, from white plaster animal heads mounted on this wall to mirrors and signs and photos of varying degrees 'aged' to have that vintage quirkiness that is all the rage these days.
I think it was supposed to be chic but instead it ended up being a metaphor for the theme of dinner this evening: a menagerie of 'stuff' without any true taste to speak of.
Our waitress seated us, was very kind, bubbly, but all of that seemed to disappear as soon as we presented her the gift certificate - something that would later continue to be confirmed throughout the night as she attended to other tables literally adjacent to us much more feverishly. We brushed it off however as she did continue to at least be attentive enough of our table that she made sure we never ran out of water. (And despite gratuity being included in the certificate we left cash for her on top of that.)
Service aside, let's get down to the good stuff (or mediocre in this instance): Food.
My other half had the scallops (with cauliflower puree, farro risotto, and lemon)
I had the pot pie (with rotisserie chicken, roasted vegetables, and truffle veloute)
We shared two sides:
- Sweet potato fries (with a harissa yogurt dip)
- Mac & Cheese (Brie and Fontina cheese)
I want to start off by saying that it is a sad, sad day when the sides are better than the actual entrees. However, that being said, it was not a meal to remember over all.
You know you're at a good place when you are excited to dig in and continue to eagerly dig in consistently through the evening even if you are full, and this was exactly what didn't happen. Once the initial excitement of having food on the table died down it was a steady decline that ended in us picking at our food in rather disheartened manner.
The mac & cheese despite being initially delicious was far too rich five bites in and is sorely lacking more breading to even out how much cheese and butter and god knows what else it's dripping in -- or perhaps an accompaniment of crostini would help greatly. The fries, as they cooled, began hardening at the centers in a manner that frozen food products do and therein also lost their appeal as the meal sagged on.
My other half, an avid lover of scallops, told me he liked them but that the entire plate as a whole did not feel worth $36.00, rather, $20.00 and he was even further put off when one of the scallops proved to still be sandy and therein not all too properly cleaned before having been fired. It was then he confirmed he would never order the plate again should we ever return.. if we ever returned.
Our waitress, bless her, misheard me when I had been debating between the fried chicken and pot pie so she had rushed a pot pie order for me. She warned me it would take twenty minutes and I confirmed it would be okay so I patiently waited, hoping for a pot pie that would make any grandmother green with envy for daring to overshadow her family recipe.
I think instead grandma would have died laughing at it.
They definitely rushed it in an attempt to get it to me quickly instead of taking their time and salvaging their already crumbling credibility.
A lot of the vegetables in the filling were still raw (like the peas), and at one point I found half an onion (I kid you not) still just in it's freshly chopped form sitting in the skillet surprisingly cooked through. There was supposed to be rotisserie chicken in it but I maybe found a tablespoon's worth (and that's being generous), and it tasted like chicken does when you've cooked it, leave it for a few nights, and microwave it too long. A sham and a shame. To top it all off there wasn't a hint of salt or any other sort of seasoning in the filling. My favourite part of the whole thing, and most flavourful at that, was the crust but I'm pretty sure it was just well seasoned phyllo dough.
The plate was priced at $27.00, but I think even $15.00 would have been pushing it.
So, overall, it's a night I'm so glad is forgettable because I don't want to waste a second more remembering it. Maybe someday in the future I'll find the inspiration to try Hearthstone again but anytime within the next year would be too soon for me. Had we been wowed we would have been more than happy to return because if there's one thing we can shell out money for, it's amazing food and a good atmosphere.
C'est la vie, Hearthstone. C'est la vie
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)