| rev:text
| - So, after exchanging a couple of e-mails with someone from the management team at Cowfish, I made an effort to visit the restaurant. You can read about my initial experience in my first review. However, the person from the management team provided a reasonable explanation for why they are reluctant to seat too many patrons at one time (they don't want to overwhelm the kitchen staff and compromise the food quality). Moreover, the person I exchanged e-mails with was very interested in making sure that my future experiences at Cowfish would be really good. He even wanted to send me a gift card to compensate me for the inconvenience from last Saturday. I turned down the offer for the gift card and the offer for "special" treatment. I feel that a restaurant should do a good job of attending to everyone - not just folks who have complained. But, I give the management a TON of credit for working so hard to make this restaurant successful.
With that as an introduction, here's the scoop on Cowfish.
The food was really good. Surprisingly good, actually. I ordered a cucumber appetizer with sweet and spicy sauce, and then I ordered two rolls. One roll was a specialty roll - Mark's Roll - and the other was from their "Burgushi" menu. All three items were excellent. The appetizer was huge, and very reasonably priced. The sauce/dressing on the cucumbers was tangy and spicy, yet it wasn't too heavy or too hot. The special roll - Mark's roll - was fantastic. It had jalapeno, tuna, cream cheese and a bunch of other items. The roll was flash fried and served with a spicy sauce on the top. The "burgushi" roll was called "Doug's Filet". Basically, it was a Philly roll covered with filet mignon (seared slightly, but still very raw). This roll was huge, and it was very heavy. However, it was also very tasty. I didn't like this roll quite as much as Mark's Roll, but it was still an item I would order again.
My girlfriend also ordered a sushi roll - from the "make your own" menu - as well as a Cowfish bento box. The Cowfish box contains a mini burger, a small roll, and some side items. It's a great deal for $11.
I was surprised to find that Cowfish is actually a good value. The rolls I ordered were $14, but they were huge. Two of them left me absolutely stuffed. (In fact, I couldn't finish all of the food I was given.) With the appetizer, three beers, the bento box, and three rolls our tab was $72. Not bad at all for Charlotte.
A few last comments... Cowfish is really, really noisy. The atmosphere is fun, but it isn't a place for an intimate conversation. And, unfortunately, the service still isn't great. The folks we interacted with were very kind and helpful. (Which was not the case last Saturday.) However, the restaurant is so popular right now that they are struggling with some basic issues. We waited almost ten minutes to get our first beers. Our server was VERY apologetic. He said the back up was due to it being half priced martini night. That's not a very compelling excuse, though. They know in advance that it is half priced martini night. They know they are very popular right now. It's important to have enough staff to serve all of the customers in a timely fashion. At the end of the meal our server - an incredibly nice guy - seemed to go AWOL. I think that this was due to his waiting on the manager to come by to visit us as first time customers. It's nice that the manager checks in with first time customers (even giving out a coupon for a free appetizer on the next visit), but I value my time more than I value a free appetizer. I was tired and I was ready to go. Yet, we didn't have our bill.
I would give Cowfish 3.5 stars right now. I suspect that the service will improve over time, and I can easily imagine it becoming a 4 star restaurant. I certainly look forward to going back.
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