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| - Our original plan for this evening was a romantic dinner outside of Charlotte. We'd settled for Harvest Grille over at Shelton Vineyards but the powers that be (my daughters) had other plans.
Ultimately we drove around for about 30 minutes trying to figure out where to eat. Simplee Sushi came up, we were in the area, so there you go.
I remember going to this place years ago when it was called something else. It was still a Japanese restaurant but the layout was totally different. Anyway, doesn't matter, just a side story.
When we first came in it took the waitress a good5 minutes to even notice us. It immediately rubbed me the wrong way until I realized that the establishment had only scheduled one waitress for the entire place. Granted, the place wasn't packed but it certainly was more than one waitress could handle. She finally noticed us, apologized and sat us down.
The atmosphere was tranquil, very, very, very tranquil. To the point were both Becky and I, who don't sit still well, realized how uncomfortable we were because the ambient was so silent and slow. People sipping on white wine and eating slowly, speaking slowly and quietly. Not like a date-type quiet... just quiet. Even the muzak was playing some slow jazz of some sort. This sounds worse than I am making it out to be... Becky and I just sit still or silently well and we got restless.
My first grip is their menu layout. It's just not intuitive. It looks kinda disorganized and it's not particularly appealing to the eye. I rarely will complaint about something so insignificant as the menu layout, but this one was remarkably confusing.
Eventually we settled for some sushi and something called the Grill & Roll Combo which comes with TONS of food (http://quickitwebsite.com/files/w401-Grill%20&%20Roll%20Combo.pdf) for $30 (it's similar to what's in the link but it has more of everything and all three styles of meat). The price seemed fair as the food was a'plenty.
First came our sparkling sake, delicious but a bit expensive. Then our sashimi (no complaints). The rest of the food took an extremely long time. Fortunately we were having fun with the sake and enjoying our quiet time (actually, just fidgeting and talking about how unsettling the silence was). Eventually the girl brought us the Miso Soup... with chopsticks. Eventually we had to flag down, whom I assumed, was either the owner or bus boy and he brought us spoons.
About 10 minutes later our salads came out. Iceberg lettuce, three or four slivers of shaved carrot and watered down Thousand Islands dressing (I think that's what it was). The whole salad was very bland and the worse part of the meal.
Another 10 minutes and our main course came out... 30 seconds after the main course came our appetizers, we had selected Shumai. The main course was just a couple of iron skillets with three types of meat, Galbi (short ribs), Bulgogi and Beef Teriyaki. The meat was ok but very disappointing. Flat and not the best cut. I could have deifnitely done better at home. The Shumai on the other hand were really good.
The poor waitress was running around frantically the entire night. The poor thing had at least 7-10 tables to wait on. She kept forgetting things and added about 30 minutes to our entire experience. Can't blame her, she's not the owner.
All in all not a bad experience, but also not a great one. The food was ok at best. More than likely will not be going back
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