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| - Durant's - I love you. I really love you, but please don't do Restaurant Week next year unless you really want to make a go of it. The point of RW is to entice new customers, not turn your regular customers off.
My friends and I do the RW thing every year. The values and the opportunity to experience somewhere new at said value is pretty enticing. We made reservations on Thursday night around 8 and the place was more full than I have ever seen it on a weeknight. This made me happy, because I want this place, with it's cozy atmosphere, above and beyond service and fabulous martinis to remain the Phoenix institution it has become.
We chose two different entrees, ordered a martini (no let down here - see above - fabulous) and settled in to the big burgundy booth surrounded by coordinating crushed velour wallpaper. I just don't have a kind word to say about anything that came after the martini. Our appetizers were very very okay. I received possibly the most over cooked steak I have ever had. I've never done this, but I sent it back. The service was, for the first time in all my 10 years of visiting, sub par. I am not sure how our waiter wound up in a fine dining establishment, when he couldn't serve his way out of a TGIFridays.
I suggested Durant's to several people for restaurant week because I really couldn't believe such a great spot could have such an awesome deal going. Based on this dining experience I would really have to say this was a 2 star dinner, but that 10 years of 4-5 star dining experience is causing me to round up. In retrospect this may qualify as more of a rant than a review. But, I'd prefer to pay full price and have my previously pretty high expectations met.
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