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| - I've been really *not* looking forward to writing this review. I do not even know where to begin. Unless you're swiping your company card or coming here for a bachelor party, this place should be avoided. Long story short: This place has been coasting on its' reputation for so long that it has forgotten to focus on the most important thing: the people that come into your establishment.
So, we had a show at the Bell Centre later in the evening. We came in immediately when the Lobster bar was supposed to open in order to make time for the show. First, upon arriving, we were made to wait since the owners or managers were downstairs and in a meeting. Not even offered a drink for the inconvenience, just told to wait. For over 20 minutes. After our reservation.
Ok, that's fine - we'll take a look around. I dig some of the design elements, we checked out some of their events online, it's definitely a chauvinistic establishment full of pomp and arrogance. Doesn't reverberate with us, but we won't count that against them.
We finally get downstairs and get seated. No prices on the menu. Ok. We explicitly asked about pricing and got the run around. Great. There's some people at the bar pounding drinks and swearing like sailors. Sweet. Bartender is audibly bitching about guests from the night before. Awesome. Manager yells at one of the bus boys. Amazing.
After spending some time bragging about the importance and status of Queue de Cheval, our waiter finally took our order (but not after trying to up-sell the living shit out of us). I will say that he took some time to bring out cuts of meat and show us the value in the cuts offered by the restaurant. While it was a nice gesture, it was clear that the display was more of a rehearsed gimmick than a deliberate effort to answer our questions.
We ordered the tasting menu and the food began to come out. While the presentation lacked inspiration, we were cautiously optimistic, since the two first courses were decent. Nothing mind-blowing, but decent (at the very least, not disappointing). First course: The shrimp in buerre blanc was pleasant; the bone marrow with brioche was well cooked, though underseasoned and the brioche's sweetness somewhat overpowered the flavour of the marrow. The gnocchi with braised meat and parm shavings was delicious, but extremely heavy after a few bites. Still, tasty.
However, our cautious optimism was destroyed as soon as the main courses were brought out (a sampling of three cuts of differently aged meats). We were paying 200 bucks (after tax) just for food, and the cuts were completely overcooked, requiring you to literally chomp through the char to get to the dry, flat, hardened pucks of beef underneath. This is a fundamental fail for a place that prides itself on the quality of its meats. It was clear that the grill wasn't even properly prepared. The meat pieces were covered in an unidentifiable (slightly nauseating) layer grease of some sort - it felt a bit like they hadn't properly cleaned the grill, and had started cooking the meat while the grill was still heating, then left the meat to cook for too long. When desert came down, one of the components of the three-dessert sampler was just flat-out gross (though, to be fair, their chocolate lava cake was quite good).
Long-story short, this place needs some TLC. Everything but certain elements of the decor and two or three elements of the meal was a let down. There is an overwhelmingly self-congratulatory air to this place - they clearly feel like they are doing the public a favor, and are excused from offering value in exchange for the (considerable) money spent in their establishment. We will never go back.
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