| rev:text
| - Do chefs ever coast?
Do restaurants ever go on auto-pilot after years of stellar reviews?
I think so. Which is the ONLY reason I'm adding to the already massive list of reviews of L'Albatros, as our experience is so very different from previous reviewers'.
Sunday night, four of us celebrating two birthdays, decide we should try L'Albatros, based on local as well as out-of-town glowing recommendations. It is considered a "destination" restaurant. Parking, as noted, is a couple bucks. No valet, no validation. The place is a "re-purposed" coach house and as such has rather peculiar lay-out and decor. We were led to the fireplace room, which was quiet and pleasant enough, but two of us were seated on white, plastic chairs. Inside. Not on the patio, where perhaps those would have been acceptable. Our water glasses were delivered, and soon some pretty great bread and olive oil arrived. (Those water and bread servers were on their game, the whole evening, and that bread could have been my entire meal, it was that good.)
Our waiter arrived, chatted us up a bit. Cardboard menus that looked, like the room, as if they were last refreshed during the Reagan administration. Very well-spoken, perfect pronunciation of the rather-challenging French menu items, took our drink orders. (Two mixed drinks, one bottle of wine. All really great.) On his return he explained the specials, answered a few questions and was off. At this point while the patio was already pretty full, our room was mostly empty.
Two ordered the escargot, served in small Dutch oven-type crocks, and both declared as fabulous in taste, temperature, presentation. One also ordered the oysters, again nicely presented and tasty.
Here endeth the three stars of the review, and the start of the subtraction of two stars.
As this was a "milestone" birthday, and I wanted to focus on our time together, I kept most of this to myself during the meal, and in no way fault our server or partially even the kitchen, as they were given no opportunity to make things right, for us. I do, though, want others to know that even great places can have an off night, or get a bit lax. A few of these are pretty minor quibbles, but others I think might signify a lapse either in the kitchen or by the management.
All four entrees were "serviceable," at best. A chicken dish was so undercooked it was bloody. Salmon, while prepared as ordered, was bland to the point of flavorlessness. (We took three of the four home, nearly untouched, hoping to "re-prepare" them and so not waste the food; the lentils served with the salmon actually had sand and a rock in it, which we discovered the following day. I say that again as a disclaimer, that the kitchen was NOT given a chance to make things right. But, honestly. If that's something they sent to table? I'm not sure there would have been any point in sending it back.)
Two drinks, one bottle wine, three apps, four entrees, no deserts. Four hundred bucks. I've spent as much and more at other places around the world. But then again have nearly always felt we received at least that in value. L'Albatros? I doubt I would have felt I got my money's worth at a quarter that cost.
(As an aside, they have no dress code. Not sure ANY restaurant has one, these days. As such, seated right next to me was a man wearing a wife-beater, shorts and flip-flops. At dinner. On Sunday. In what their website describes as a "fine dining restaurant." Again, please understand: I am NOT faulting L'Albatros for this. Just added to the disappointment, I suppose. And that lug was not alone; many others were, to be kind, "under-dressed" for a place that is considered in the top tier of Cleveland restaurants.)
If you've come this far, here's my conclusion: A visitor to Cleveland might peruse for example Zagat's and see at the very top of their ratings for restaurants L'Albatros. On one night, not only wasn't it the best, it really wasn't even very good. Many consider it their go-to place for special occasions, and more power to them. I have asked a few after our experience, if maybe they weren't relying on tradition, going to a place that perhaps has slipped a few notches, yet their fondness masks problems? Are they thanking a great chef for years of groundbreaking work and investment in Cleveland by casting a blind eye? Based on one visit, I don't consider L'Albatros for recommendation, let alone top-tier status.
"Tradition is a guide and not a jailer."
-- W. Somerset Maugham
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)