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| - you'll notice from my review history that i'm not hard to please. maybe somewhat hard to impress into speaking in superlatives, but it takes a lot for me to leave a bad review. Looking at the other reviews for this restaurant I see a lot of "amazings" and equally as many 'just okays" to "wtfs".. and that's really all it is. this place is debilitatingly inconsistent.
I've been here several times and the food is definitely overpriced but it's always been okay (neither exceptional nor offensive 'italian' fare), and the service is always lovely (thats what the points are for in this review).
Went on NYE for dinner (table of four) and I know what youre thinking "it's a busy holiday, cut them some slack!"
No. I've been there on busier fridays, and there's just no excuse for what was getting churned out of the kitchen. the wait staff is not to blame, i am entirely blaming the kitchen (and didnt undertip to punish the wait staff who were not to blame)
let's just get to the shitshow.
arancini and lamb meatballs were fine. The lamb (i love lamb, so it's not like i can't "handle" the gamey taste) was not fresh. Arancini is very hard to screw up, and they didn't. Neither is worth the 15 dollar price tag ( 4 arancinis in some forgettable sauce, and 7 lamb meatballs that were smaller than a teaspoon.. baffling).
Now at this point of the meal i was pretty happy because it's NYE, i was with my friends, and the ambiance and wait staff were killing it. it was overpriced but average food, which is what I already knew about this place.
the mains is where they completely lost us. our friend's pasta was good. It wasn't 25 dollar good, but it was a comfort dish (I know i keep bringing up the price but i eat at this price point frequently and it was more like a 15/person quality of food).
the two pizzas were both dry and not well seasoned (pear pizza and the one with mulitple meats) and the special, bison cheek (which is one of my favorite meats) was literally inedible. I always take a takeout box, i literally left my entire meal at the table in the box except the polenta which i ate, and the few bites of bison snd greens that were in my belly.
The biscuit was inedibly dry (and I mean that, I love bread and will even eat stale bread, this biscuit was burnt and heavily over salted... which is something a salt lover like me has never said). the bison cheek was cooked well in terms of doneness but the marinade was horrific. it was very sweet (I like a mix of sweet/meat so it isn't that i'm not adventurous), the greens were underseasoned and seemed old (maybe just overcooked). I had to cut the outsides of the bison off to at least try and eat the meat less affected by the sugar they must've marinaded it in, but.... it was too far in. It was permeated into the entire chunk of meat and that bummed me out because i was famished and had saved up for this meal. very hard to screw up bison for me, but they did. i ate the polenta (hard to screw up, and they didnt) that hadn't touched the sugar meat and that was basically my meal, plus a teaspoon meatball and an arancini.
"Well Ayla, why didn't you tell them at the restaurant instead of being an asshole on the inernet"
Great question, Internet! The time between the first entree being dropped (mine) and the last (pasta) was almost 25 minutes, and the time between our appetizers being cleared and my entree being dropped was over 20 minutes as well. Now, we were in no rush as it's NYE, but we had sat and ordered by half 8 and were not out by 11, it was ridiculous. it was not even crowded and it is not the wait staff's fault. The expo or someone in the kitchen was being a stone cold disaster (I used to work on a kitchen line, you know when the mess ups is from front or back of house).
Since it had been about 40 minutes between cleared apps and my friend getting her pasta, they should have refired the rest of our entrees or at least kept them warm. no, they dropped one plate, then dropped two pizzas, and the pasta with 5ish minutes or so between each of those things. It was baffling. the prospect of them firing up another shit meal for me after 40 minutes of not eating anything (rude to start eating until everyone has their plates when your party is only 4), i wasn't going to risk it i just wanted to dip ASAP and never return.
It sucks too because the wait staff, ambiance, and the menu on paper are so awesome, and this place is like two blocks from where I live. further, the presentation is lways great, but the food underneath it absolutely blekh. I don't see myself hemorrhaging my hard earned cash on this place ever again. In a town with so, so many amazing culinary options i will never understand how the hell this place stays open in such a prime location. they need to elevate the quality of their food to justify the price, or hopefully they'll be gone by the end of the year. i've given it so many chances and Saturday was just the straw that broke the camel's back.
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