| rev:text
| - The short version: Our experience at this restaurant was an exceptionally long wait topped by a mediocre meal.
The long version:
We were excited to have reservations at this place, with its buzz and pedigree. We arrived at 8:45 for a 9pm reservation. They had already bumped our reservation to 9:30... A little irksome, but we figured it gave us a good excuse for a cocktail at the adjacent bar. Stood at the bar for about fifteen minutes watching the two tenders smiling and shaking their.... Um.... Shakers lots for show, but not moving very fast and falling further and further behind on orders from the restaurant, while not servicing the bar itself at all.
Finally gave up on bar service entirely when one of our party found a table in the bar which promised table service. The very sweet server was completely overwhelmed, confused and stressed - but eventually made it to us to take our drink order. I ordered a gin martini, a little dirty.... And got a lemon-infused vodka martini with olives in it. The receipt showed "tar benders special". Whatever, I was thirsty.... No complaints, and was just happy to get a drink... By this time it's 9:30 or so, 45 mins in. And we figure we'll be seated in the restaurant soon. We check in with the hostess, and she says soon... She'll come get us in the bar.
Getting close to 10, still nothing, drinks long gone, we order a bottle of wine. Wine menu is OK. No particular specialty, pretty short list for a restaurant catering to foodies. Sommelier came by to make a recommendation, was very nice.
10:15 still don't have a table for us. Our server nicely comps us a cheese plate which was lovely and staved off full hangry mode.
10:30 we check in with the hostess again and it turns out they now thought they already seated us.... Had our name crossed off the list.
10:40 finally we get seated in restaurant. As we are walking through the restaurant I see only two tables with food on them... Not hopeful. New server was also very pleasant. We had the menus memorized by this time so we ordered right away. They were out of a number of things on the menu. I was hoping for the Elk Ossobuco - they were out of the elk, but were making the dish with Bison. Still sounded good, so I rolled with it.
Meal actually arrived pretty quickly, by this time the restaurant was clearing out, was close to 11. Presentation was sub par... Huge pile of brown meat, no garnish, a small blob of hidden cooked greens, and blob on either side of a tablespoon or so of risotto. Meat was nicely cooked, tender and falling off the bone. Seasoning was pretty uninspired... Bland. The sauce under the risotto tasted like off the shelf barbecue sauce. Overall the food was fine, but not what I would expect from a place with this much hype, and certainly not worth an hour and a half wait past our reservation time.
I hope they work out the kinks in this place. Ambiance is good, servers friendly, and it has potential. But right now the management needs to get their act together and the food needs to be taken up a notch for it to get return business once the newness fizzles out.
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