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| - I wanted to try this place for a while, so my daughter and I gave it a go. We decided to sit on the patio which had pretty views however; one row of tables is directly next to the parking lot. So close that if seated, you could reach out and touch the car parked next to you. The host originally wanted to seat us there and I did not want to ingest car fumes during my meal. He begrudgingly let us sit in the corner by the fire place as all the other empty tables were "reserved". We were there for an hour and a half and no one was ever seated at those tables. As I looked around, I was surprised at the attire of the wait staff. Faded navy blue Café Bink t-shirts, a little too worn. Time for new ones. They were all wearing burgundy aprons, dingy looking as well, and on one of the waiters, I noticed, had crusty stains on it. It was before 6:00 PM, early in the dinner service, but it really looked like it hadn't been washed in a week. Another waiter looked like he just rolled out of bed; he was the kid who served us our water. He was completely lethargic and poured our water as if we were keeping him from going back to napping. He has to be a relative of the owner or someone who works there, because it seemed he was there against his will. Bread arrived, but not the oil and balsamic, everyone else got theirs? No salt and pepper on any table. OK, maybe the chef is confident he seasoned everything to perfection?
My daughter ordered an iced tea. When the waiter came by to refill, he poured from a stainless pitcher. When he tipped the pitcher forward, I saw the bottom of it. WOW, when was the last time that was scrubbed out? The waiter walked away and I told my daughter NOT to drink her tea. A different waitress came by to deliver our food and I asked for a new iced tea and told her to check out the pitcher. It needed to be cleaned. This was not our waiter's fault; I really don't believe he was aware of that. I just caught it by chance.
We ordered the bacon wrapped dates. They were very good. I loved them. I also ordered the mussels. I order mussels ALL the time and have eaten hundreds of them over the years, but I swear I have never seen mussels so loaded with undigested plankton. I expect a little green stuff here and there, but this was the size of a peanut in each one. I just couldn't eat it as it made the mussels really bitter not to mention how gross it looked. The sauce they were in was a nice consistency and not oily, very creamy - could have used more garlic and a little salt, which I could have remedied myself-if there were salt on the table (ha, ha). The bread slice that came with it, to soak up the broth, was buttered so heavily and under toasted, it was not edible. The waiter came back and saw the look of uncertainty on my face and asked how the mussels were. I showed him and I think he was a bit surprised at the giant balls of green in each one. He was very sweet and removed them from my bill, which he really didn't have to do. I appreciated that. We had also ordered a Caesar Salad with chicken, which had not arrived at the table yet. Because it was now after 7:00 pm, we decided to have it packed to go. My daughter was getting tired. With the chicken added it came to $17.00. I am thinking, this better be a kick-butt Caesar Salad for $17.00. Our waiter was very nice but our overall experience with the food at this point was, "eh".
We got home and gave the Caesar Salad to my friend who just arrived back from baseball practice and had not eaten. He took a few bites and said, "I can't eat this". It was SO fishy! It was LOADED with anchovies. We like anchovies, but this was just overkill. Needless to say, my $17.00 Caesar Salad ended up in the trash. How disappointing. Would I go back? No. I always wanted to try Binkley's too, but after this experience, I think I may pass on that as well. I am glad other people have liked Café Bink; it just was not for me.
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