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| - As it's only been open a couple months, it's not a surprise that tonight was my first time visiting the restaurant and bar. What is surprising is how good food could leave such a bad aftertaste in my mouth.
The service was fairly good, although the server didn't know what beers were available on draft. As there were only six beers on draft, I'm thinking he might want to brush up on his memorization skills. But he was very attentive, when asked for anything from anyone (extra napkins, another drink, silverware for new arrivals) he always brought it promptly, and he was very likable. I have no complaints about the service.
I ordered the Curveball Club Sandwich. The description made it sound like a normal club sandwich, but instead of a traditional club served on three thin slices of toast, I got a turkey and bacon sandwich served on two thick slabs of Texas toast.
To the preparer's credit, the meat and toppings were arranged evenly across the entire sandwich. As anyone who's ordered a sandwich anywhere from Arby's to the higher-end chain restaurants can attest, that's unusual. Most of the time, all the meat and toppings are plopped in the middle without a second thought. So I appreciate the obvious care the preparer took when making my sandwich.
But I wasn't expecting a turkey and bacon sandwich on very thick toast.
It had a good flavor - the turkey and bacon were both very good - but after finishing most of the first half of the sandwich, I realized there was no cheese in the sandwich, even though the description of the club specifically mentioned cheddar cheese. It's funny, because even after adjusting my expectations upon seeing the non-club club sandwich, something felt off, but I was too busy talking to my friends to notice there wasn't any cheese at first.
I asked the waiter if he'd bring me a half a slice of cheddar for the other half of my sandwich, as I was planning on bringing it home to eat later. At that point, I felt like it would be silly to put some cheese on the remains of the first half of my sandwich.
A couple of minutes later, he came back to the table and told me there was no cheddar cheese available in the kitchen, but he could bring me a slice of American cheese.
The restaurant had been open for less than an hour. It was not busy. I can't imagine why they did not have any cheddar cheese. The restaurant is located maybe a couple thousand yards from a Food Lion, and maybe a half mile at best from a Harris Teeter, and they had no cheddar cheese. This is a restaurant that offers cheeseburgers. And they had no cheddar cheese.
Evidently, they named it the Curveball Club because it wasn't actually a club sandwich and it didn't contain the cheese promised in the description. Randomly bizarre, much?
With all that said, I have to say I wasn't unhappy. Again, the service was good, the food was good even without the cheese, and the people I was with seemed to enjoy their meals. In my mind, I was already composing how I'd describe the thick toast and lack of cheddar cheese to my friends later when describing my dinner.
BUT THEN I GOT THE BILL.
I was planning on giving this restaurant three stars. I don't think it's the greatest, but it's not the kind of place I'd normally eat in anyway, and while the lack of cheese (or rather the explanation for the lack of cheese) was weird, it wasn't a bad sandwich, even if it wasn't a club sandwich.
But I ended up being charged $23 for the meal - $5.00 for each of the two beers I drank and $13.00 for the sandwich. It wasn't until I got home and thought about it that I realized they had overcharged me by $3 for a sandwich that wasn't even what was described. The menu said it was $10. I verified on their website that it's $10. But they charged me $13.
I could live with that - it's only $3 - but then...
They also tried to con me into paying a tip twice.
They charged me a $4.14 gratuity. That's standard - most restaurants charge an 18% tip for groups of six or eight. But on the final bill, the one you write the tip in and sign, there was no mention whatsoever that the subtotal included that 18% gratuity charge. Instead, there was a tip guide letting you know how much to tip on a total that ALREADY INCLUDED AN 18% TIP.
I paid $29 for a moderately good sandwich and two small draft beers.
And then they want to try and trick me into paying a second tip.
So yeah, I'm not giving them three stars. I'm giving them one.
And if you have a problem with that, you can pay the $9.90 tip I would have given if I hadn't been paying attention on an overpriced $23 meal. (That includes the $4.14 tip charged automatically since I was part of the group and the $5.76 recommended tip I would have paid if I hadn't checked the original bill and seen that the tip was already included in my subtotal.)
That's some devious crap they're trying to get away with.
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