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| - I will start off by saying I LOVE Fox restaurants! I've only been here less than 2 years but have been to The Yard, Arrogant Butcher, Culinary Dropout, North several times each and have always had a great experience bar none everytime.
Then I went to The Henry.
We live only 5 mins away and had twice tried to stop by for dinner on a weekend with no res. Not possible, unless you want to wait an hour for a table. We have a friend visiting from Canada and she wanted to take us out for a nice dinner as a thank you for the hospitality so I suggested we book a table at Fox's Flagship place, their offices being located upstairs. Booked in for 730pm on Tues night.
Got there at 725pm and our table was waiting for us. Awesome!
But then I tried to say how awesome it was out loud to my wife and our guest, but realized the only way for them to hear me was for me to practically SCREAM! The Henry is LOUD!!! People loud, kitchen loud, music loud, everything loud! And this was a Tuesday!
So there we were kinda half shouting to each other. The server comes over right away. Now I'm not sure how to describe his service but will try. This guy was really animated and talked fast (Also having to kinda yell) and was really friendly, but the whole thing seemed like an act. Everything he said sounded scripted, like the way the daily specials sound but everything was like that. Also it seemed that he was either high on something speedy, or was really in the weeds (frantically busy for you non restaurant peeps) and was trying to put on a friendly demeanor. Our guest noticed that any questions she had were answered indirectly and long-winded the way politicians will answer stuff. At one point as she tried to order a bottle of wine, he starts going on about "Well why don't I let you look at the wine list for a few more minutes and I will come back... "I'm trying to order the wine now." says our guest. Awkward moment follows for 2 secs. You get the idea.
I had ordered a can of beer, which arrived promptly. The wine however took about 10min to land, so I had to sit there staring at my glass of beer untouched for the duration as anyone with any decorum knows how gauche it is to sip an alcoholic drink before everyone at the table has a drink in front of them to cheers.
The menu is interesting, though there isn't a whole lot on there. We split the grilled artichokes which were fine. Same as they are at The Yard. Not amazing but hey, there's no reinventing that dish.
I had the chicken with kale slaw and mac and cheese. Very well presented and all three delicious. My wife and Guest each wanted two pastas, the mushroom tortelli and the bacon parm gemelli. They asked Server Sketchy if the kitchen could simply split both and plate two different half orders of pasta on each plate. He says sure thing. The food arrives and the pastas are not split at all. Then when asked why they weren't split, he says" Oh, sure thing be right back!" He comes back with 2 side plates and plops them down. "We'll need some kind of spoon to divy this up." Says my exasperated wife. Off he goes to get a spoon. Then there's the awkward 30 secs of struggling to split the food onto two plates, which totally ruins the foods' presentation. Having a chef do it makes it neat and pretty. Do it yourself makes it look like a dog's breakfast. I should have complained to a manager.
I worked in service for 20 years and the right thing to do was to apologize for the mix up, take the plates back to the kitchen and have a cook split and re-plate the food in an attractive manner the way it was requested. We're not trying to divide up Moons over My Hammy at Denny's!
The pastas did however taste great, though Guest thought the gemelli was too salty. "It's bacon and Parmesan cheese" said I, "Two of the the saltiest foods around which is why they are awesome!" She's a person who never uses salt on anything. My wife thought it was fine.
The last thing that really clinched this as a mediocre Fox experience was that around 945pm our server started sweeping under the tables in his (our) section. I mean I have done endless side-duties in my career in the biz and I understand wanting to get the hell outta Dodge asap after a long shift, but at/around table duties should ALWAYS wait until every customer in that section is gone. Period. We were going to order some dessert, but as we were obviously over-staying our welcome in this guys' section we just asked for the tab.
All in all, this was my first and last visit to The Henry. Fox has so many other great places that I really enjoy, there is no need for me to bother. I will say though that as this is their head office location, management needs to tighten the screws on how to provide the great service and dining experience we all have come to expect from a Fox restaurant. You have set the bar high. Maintain it.
I will likely ease my disappointment later this afternoon at North's awesome happy hour.
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