| rev:text
| - We drove around C-U for awhile this past Saturday night, looking for a restaurant that didn't have a line out the door. As we passed Carmon's and noticed a sparsely populated dining room, we made our decision.
Walking in, we had a good feeling. The ambiance is really nice - very shabby chic with some refined touches. We were asked if we had a reservation (strange, as the place was nearly empty). As we were lead to our table, we passed another party who'd gotten their food. I noted how small and plain their crepes appeared, but they seemed to be enjoying them.
When we glanced at the extremely small menu (they have 6-7 appetizers and the same number of dinner crepes) with the extremely high-end prices, we were a bit taken aback. Our initial--and not unpleasant--waitress was replaced by a sloppily dressed older woman who looked like she hadn't smiled in decades. On top of it, she tended to bark more than speak (as in, she sounded like a heavy smoker getting over a cold), so we had trouble understanding her. We were more than confused...was this supposed to be a nice restaurant or a truck stop?
My husband ordered an $8 bowl of french onion soup to start, and a customized dinner crepe for his main course ($13). I ordered a $13 ham and cheese crepe. Ten minutes elapsed and the waitress brought "bread" to the table, which consisted of the heel of a mini-baguette -- about half of what one would get with a bowl of soup at Panera. Another ten minutes or so went by and they brought out the soup, which was actually pretty good. My husband took his time with the soup, and probably didn't finish it for 10 or 15 minutes.
Once they took his empty soup bowl away, the wait began. After about 20 minutes, the waitress came back over and assured us that our ticket had already been submitted, but she asked my husband what he ordered again and, this time, actually wrote it down. We were not encouraged.
We probably did not get our food for another 20-30 minutes. And again, there were 2 other parties of 2 in the restaurant. With three line cooks and a chef in the kitchen, you'd think they could make two crepes in less time, considering that crepes are almost fast food in Europe. While we waited, no one came to update us. No one even looked at us. The owner is a tall, smug man who seems to do nothing but talk on the phone and walk around drinking wine and/or coffee. He socialized with another table whom he clearly knew, but took no notice of the other diners in the restaurant or the fact that their tables had been empty for half an hour.
When the crepes finally arrived they were, as we'd witnessed, pretty insubstantial. For $13, you get a crepe the size of a slice of Wonderbread. I agree with the other reviewer about the buckwheat -- it really took away from the meal both in taste and appearance (they serve them on these brown plates that are almost the same color as the crepes...pretty unappetizing). Mine was unevenly heated and very salty. My husband says his was decent.
Since we were ravenous by the time we got our food, it didn't take us long to finish it. The waitress eventually came back and, without a word, took our plates away. My husband attempted to ask for dessert menus, but she was already walking away from us, so his question was ignored.
We did get dessert menus a few minutes later, and the dessert prices were no better than the entrees. I got a $8 Nutella crepe, but my husband refused to pay for dessert what he should have paid for dinner. We each ordered coffee, which took about 10 minutes to bring out. We wouldn't have necessarily minded this, except the owner helped himself to a cup of coffee and walked right past us as we were waiting for ours. The dessert crepe came much more quickly than dinner had, and was fine, but there's not much you can do to mess up a Nutella crepe. I will say that the buckwheat was too heavy for the rich filling. I don't know why they couldn't have used white flour.
With non-alcoholic drinks, our bill came to $50, on which we left a minimal tip. We were there for almost two hours, and when we left, the dining room was still empty, save for two couples and a guy sitting at the bar who was obviously a friend of the owner.
We were both really disappointed in this local eatery, and I can't imagine going back.
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