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| - While I love the concept and mission of this restaurant, hate the execution. The 3 times I've been here has ended in disappointment and hunger.
Stopped in for a late lunch with my husband yesterday afternoon, ordered the following:
Roasted Corn Chowder -- bland, tasted like frozen kernals -- no "roasted" taste. It was in no way a chowder. If you called it a soup, I might accept the watery broth, but this tasted like a can of unsalted corn kernals and canned peppers in water. Horrible. It screamed for salt, fat, and taste. Not to mention, there was a chunk of nasty potato with a giant black spot. Roasted corn chowder implies fire roasted or grilled corn.
Black Bean Burger -- decent, came out as advertised. Carrot salad side dish was overly sweet, soggy, not very flavorful. The bun was a stale old pretzel bun, seemed like they tried to steam it in an attempt to revive the 3-day old bun. It had the consistency of a soggy pretzel.
White Rhino Old Oat Tree Burger -- awful, mushy, way under-salted, and completely not the flavor profile I had expected. Heavy on the turmeric so it had a flavor reminiscent of curry, but a very wimpy one, with a paste-like consistency in the middle, and another disappointing weird pretzel-like bun. I ordered the bean salad as a side -- which tasted sour, like it had been in the refrigerated case for too many days. Blech.
Service: awful. During the time I was there, I counted 6 people who appeared to be working there... there were only about 5 tables when we were sat -- and yet the service was very slow and awkward. We had placed our drink order. She leaves, comes back 5 minutes later and asks me what I wanted to drink.
Here's how my food order went:
Server: "Do you know what you want to order?" (She's holding an order pad and pen, so I assumed she's writing everything down)
Me: "Yes. I'd like a Tree Hugger's salad, the corn chowder, a White Rhino Old Oat Tree Burger."
Server: "What kind of side?"
Me: "I'll take the beans"
Husband: "I'll have the black bean burger and the carrot salad"
Server (to me): "So you still want the soup, AND the salad? AND the oat burger?"
Me: In my head..."WHA?!" I'd just told her 30 seconds ago?
It took a long time for the food to come out, which all came out at once. Why not soup and/or salad first?! The oat burger is like a wet sock and the server is no where in sight. In fact no servers are in sight. There's some guy with a soul patch on the phone behind the register at the counter who's paying absolutely no attention to what's going on out on the floor busy tinkering behind the counter. Is he a proprietor? A manager? Or just some guy? My husband gets up to try to ask the soul patch guy at the counter for ketchup, but he totally ignores my husband and avoids by moving to a different area of the counter. By then, the server comes back and I ask for ketchup but doesn't ask how the food is. She says she's going to get us some extra napkins, but never really asks how the food is. I had really wanted dessert and coffee when I had come in, but after the painful torture of the horrible meal, I just couldn't stay any longer.
It would be obvious to any experienced/conscientious server from the amount of food left on the plates, that there's something wrong. She doesn't even ask if we want to go boxes, so it seems like denial, or avoidance -- like she's used to customers not liking the food, but not wanting to have the difficult conversation to fix the customer experience. I had put the rotten lettuce and the blighted piece of potato off to the side of the plate, but no one even noticed. She had taken our plates past the soul patch guy who doesn't even appear to be concerned with the clearly barely-touched sides and half-eaten plates going past him. He must be used to it too. I should have learned from the previous disappointing experiences I had there, instead of flushing another $42 down the toilet.
It's such a shame because I want to like a place that strives to be ecologically responsible, offers wholesome foods, and sources locally, but their service and food are horrible. I would have given this place 0 stars, but the only reason why gave it 1 is because of their attempt at sustainability. Also, they need to overhaul their menu -- the items lack detailed description so the food is so far off from expectations, that it makes the experience that much worse. While I understand the challenges of running out of items while trying to source locally -- the kitchen and servers need to communicate to the customers what's different on the menu, what's being substituted. They also need to not hold their prepared foods for so long. They taste stale, and often have absorbed other odors from the refrigerated case. Their menu is NOT cheap. $12-$14 for a burger is totally acceptable if it's well executed and the dining room is impeccable. I've given up on this place.
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