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| - Holy Gastronomical Gaffe Batman! This was perhaps one of the worst dining experiences I have had in recent memory. We went to celebrate my wife's birthday and left in anything but a celebratory mood.
Pretension... with foie gras... on everything...
This menu screams out for some tender loving care. The chef is obviously insecure with his/her ability to combine flavors into a cohesive whole, and consequently every dish has no less than three sides or sauces. Meats were paired with not one, but two starches, dragging down an already heavy plate.
We started with cocktails; nothing on the cocktail menu appealed so I went with the old standby of Tanqueray and tonic (weak), and my wife ordered a "dry and dirty" Grey Goose martini. Now I'm not sure about you, but my martinis (even vodka martinis) have vermouth in them. This had no vermouth (what was the dry describing??) and about a tablespoon of olive juice. Basically it was just vodka shaken over ice. Not very appetizing.
Our server, wearing a tuxedo shirt that looked like it was tattered from being worn and washed every night for the last three years brought us a complementary shooter of the night's soup... pureed asparagus and foie gras. Ethical issues with froie gras aside, it's really not my favorite, so I let it be. The wife took a small sip and set it aside as well ...bland.
The server after noting that we were not interested in the soup went on to recommend... the foie gras appetizer... REALLY!?! We said no thank you, and ordered the cheese plate instead. When the cheese plate came, it featured un-seasoned pecans, slimy raisins, dried cherries and almonds, and three cheeses with crackers. The cheese selections left just about everything to be desired. A cheap, single cream brie with bleu cheese, a bland, tasteless "buttery cheddar" and perhaps the one palatable cheese, an Irish porter cheddar. The crackers were stale. At this point we were overhearing the people behind us commenting on how good their entrees were, and crossed our fingers that the chef was somehow going to pull this one off ...not so much.
I ordered the chipotle hangar steak, medium rare, and she ordered the spotted prawns and pasta. The server suggested medium-rare as the house default, which is my preference anyway. When the entrees arrived, the prawns were un-shelled, with head and legs remaining. The sauce, though tasty was overpowering with mustard for such a delicate protein as prawns, and it had the unnatural color of a brand new yellow school bus. The prawns were cooked beyond any sensible level, and the meat was rubbery, the consistency of bubble gum. The hangar steak, ordered medium-rare, was killed twice. Once when the cow was slaughtered, and again when they cooked this poor piece of meat to its second death. The plating of the steak called for cutting it into 3/4" slices, so the chef could have easily seen, during plating, that the meat had been overcooked. Instead of starting again, and correcting the problem, they chose to send a flawed plate. Unprofessional!
When we informed the server of our displeasure with the meal, and our desire to leave, she called the manager over. Though I understand making an effort to salvage the experience, she just did not take the hint that the entree faux pas was not our first issue with the meal, and kept asking over and over what she could do to "fix it." Eventually, she seemed to get that it was a lost cause, and walked away.
All-in-all an epicurean disaster. I do not understand the rave reviews in other comments for this establishment. A disastrous disappointment, take your business to one of the other fantastic restaurants where they respect the food that they are preparing rather than beating you over the head with foppish pretension.
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