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| - Food: 1 star
Decor & ambience: 5 stars
Service: 4 stars
It is such a shame, such a waste of Primrose's beautiful decor and ambience, that its food sucked so badly.
The place looks absolutely beautiful: muted harmonious colors, old timey furniture and furnishings, bookcases scattered along the walls. (The check was brought tucked inside a real, antique-y, book.) The bathroom was modern and well lit and clean. The service was attentive and prompt.
The scene killer was the food. We shared the Buttermilk Caesar Salad, the Fried Chicken Provençal, and the Filet Mignon & Frites. Only the salad was fairly good, the bib lettuce fresh and crunchy and sweet, the dressing laced with a decent amount of anchovies. It is, though, a little over salted.
The fried chicken? I have not eaten at KFC in 25+ years but I would bet one can get better fried chicken tenders there, for a lot less. Primrose's fried chicken was super crunchy on the outside and that was its only good point. The pieces are so overdone and so dense, they feel like chunks of ceramic, not protein. The accompanying aioli was very unremarkable. We only took a couple of bites each and left the rest, and then asked for it to be taken away. (We were not charged for it.)
The filet mignon? We asked for ours medium rare. You can be the judge from my pic as to whether it's medium rare. The rarest part was barely pink, and was well done and dry around the edges. If that's medium rare, I'd hate to see their "well done"! Really, how does one screw up filet mignon? The mushroom mix that came with the steak was mundane, despite supposedly made with bone marrow. The accompanying fries were quite salty. When we told the waiter of the saltiness, he offered to get us a new batch "unspiced". Not paying close attention, we said yes. He did very promptly bring a new batch or piping hot and crunchy fries, but not only it had no salt, it had no spices either! We should have noticed that the offer was for "unspiced" fries, not just "unsalted" fries!
So, bottom line is, they need to really beef up their quality control in the kitchen. If the kitchen can't get the salting of fries, or make a Caesar salad dressing that's not over salted, or cook a piece of steak to the requested doneness, then it's failing at some of the most basic culinary skills.
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