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| - I guess I have nobody to blame by myself. Most of the reviews for Alleycatz here are resoundingly negative, and I had a fairly terrible experience at the establishment's sister restaurant, Spacco. But there was a pretty irresistible Groupon on offer, so I figured, hey, how bad could it be?
Famous last words.
We arrived at around 7:00 on a Friday night and were shown to an almost comically cramped table that was right next to a very loud party. But that's fine; I'd been expecting such based on many of the Yelp reviews I had read.
Our Groupon provided us with two separate three course meals, so I ate:
Calamari Fritto ("calamari served with jalapeno lime mayo & lemon") and Bruschetta ("Roma tomatoes, olive oil, garlic and fresh parmesan cheese, Vienna bread, balsamic glaze"): I'll admit I was pleasantly surprised by both of these appetizers, as the calamari was cooked well and accompanied by a tasty dipping sauce, while the bruschetta, though nothing special, was perfectly edible and well prepared.
The Champini Burger ("9 oz homemade ground angus beef with aged cheddar, smoked bacon, vine tomato, smokey bbq sauce, hand cut French fries"): Again, this was far from a stellar dish, but it was quite edible and even flavorful. The burger was relatively juicy, while the toppings were all fine, and the fries were actually above average.
Now here's where we run into problems. The timing between the apps and the mains was actually really well done - we didn't wait more than ten minutes to get our main courses after finishing the appetizers - but we waited a solid hour before we got our desserts. Yes, an *hour*. 60 minutes. I can't really stress that number enough. It was completely unacceptable and had me fuming by the time the desserts did arrive. (They were fine but I was too pissed off to enjoy them.)
Making matters worse, I had to chase down our server and ask for our bill -- which had been prepared with the *tip included*. I mean, I guess when service is that bad it's a good idea to include the tip on the bill, because I certainly wasn't planning to leave anything. (At least the tip was 15%. It's still way too much, but it's better than 18 or even 20%.)
What a farce Alleycatz is. Get it together, you incompetent clowns.
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