| rev:text
| - I gave Big Grove Tavern two chances, both on a Sunday, and from the brunch menu, and their standard menu. I ordered a few of the same items during each visit, and some unique things during each visit.
The first visit, I tried the brunch menu selections that were offered that day. Service was between good and stellar. Drinks were never left empty, and multiple staff delivered food and beverages to help increase ticket times. The popcorn was nice, it seemed like a blend of thyme, turmeric and agave nectar. I had the steak fries with truffle fries. It turned out to be the half dollar sized medallions, that while tender and tasty, were not as filling as anticipated. The truffle fries, while decadent in flavor, were tossed with truffle oil for flavor, which seemed to diminish the value behind the $23 price tag. The meal was tasty, the presentation was weak, but the value seemed to lack slightly between the balance of plating, price point and flavor. I also had the deviled egg, a beautiful presentations, and oddly the star of the show on terms of plating, the sun dried tomato puree was definitely a solid choice in camping up this dish.
During visit two, I tried the pretzel as an appetizer, the deviled egg again, which was consistent with the last visit, and the pork belly tacos. The popcorn was absent this trip, given this was my second trip, I wasnt sure if the popcorn came standard or not. The pretzel was still cold in the center, which is conducive to restaurants that do large prep batches and freeze things to maintain freshness and flavor to the table, however, if the restaurant kitchen is laid out similar to other high end establishments, the pretzel came from garde mange, and the chef didn't test the product with a cake tester or paperclip to make sure the center was warm prior to service and hide the evidence that he or she did test for a warm, fully cooked product. The pork belly tacos appeared to be a pre-cured portion of pork belly that was deep fried prior to plating, while I'm speculating on the exact preparation method, the over all flavor seemed to fall short of what I would anticipate of a staple menu item, while decent, I wasn't blown away by the dish, or the lack of salsa options at the table to add more spice should I desire, such as a bottle of cholula.
While the food was so close to being completely on point, the customer service does seem to be a priority here. And that is no small feat for any restaurant. The atmosphere was great, regardless of how busy the restaurant was or wasn't, and the staff seemed to present their very best efforts, relative to experience, during both visits. All in all, I lean towards three stars because the food seemed to fall just shy of the precedent set by the expectations, and as a foodie, I would've loved a better experience at the fork.
|
![[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)