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| - When you're at the August Wilson Center for a 7 pm show, and you have a blind lady in tow, your choices for dinner within walking distance are extremely limited in this block of downtown. So after trying to view options up and down the block without walking in circles, we opted to give Tonic a try since it was directly on the opposite corner from August Wilson Center.
We walked in, and were greeted by a friendly staff member, and given a seat. The atmosphere was rather pleasant, or at least the decor. It was clean, the staff was friendly, the seats were fine. The background music and conversation (downstairs) were not obnoxious or overpowering. The two giant screen TVs with incessant sports coverage were obnoxious, but they always are, and seem to be ALWAYS present in da burgh. But even with the sound turned off, I swear I could feel them trying to leech out as much of my IQ as they could.
We perused the menu, which seemed to be VERY basic, with appetizers, sandwiches, soups, salads, and very few 'meal' options, and the prices were a tad outrageous for such 'basic' options.
We ordered our sodas (thanks goodness, Coke product people), and I ordered a burger, and my friend the fish and chips.
The service staff was very friendly, including the trendy new boy in training who did a little boogie dance in the dining room...he was in a GOOD mood. The gal that was training him was a little more subdued, but I gathered that it was one of her last days before moving on to another job. Together, they provided excellent service. And the new boy was kind of adorable in his way.
Then came the food. The 'Gourmet' burger boasted of being 8 oz of Kobe beef, with mushrooms and cheese, bacon and caramelized onions, and came with a side of fries. I opted to leave off the onions, and ordered the burger medium rare. The fish and chips was two big blobs of fried fish, a mound of fries, and a small bowl of cole slaw.
The burger was NOT fresh. The difference between fresh meat and frozen meat can be clearly seen with asking for it with any level of 'rare'. Fresh meat in a state of rare comes pink, frozen comes grey no matter HOW you ask for it, and this burger was grey. The bun was a little dried out, and the burger itself had very little flavor except for the over-abundance of artificial garlic or liquid smoke they used to season it. It was the kind of fake seasoning that created the cloud of garlic stench that surrounded me and fellow adjacent theater attendees for three hours of play, and several hours of a gassy stomach. The fries were fine, though clearly out of a bag of frozen processed and seasoned fries. And the burger didn't come with lettuce or tomato. This was $11.50.
The fish and chips were also of the freezer bag variety. My friend ate one lump of fish, and gave the other to me, which gave me soggy greasy breading, and a rubbery and flavorless fish. She had a bigger mound of fries than me, but they were the same freezer bag fries, and the slaw just looked kind of vinegar based. This was $15.
Now, when you can get the best burger in town at Winghart's in Market Square which is real fresh ground beef, made truly to order, with actual flavor, for $7.50, why would you even try to go all 'bistroid' with a fakey and substandard frozen burger for $11.50? And this was the least expensive burger on their list!
Same goes for the fish and chips. If you're going to pretend to be all uppity, then by gosh, make it fresh from scratch if you're going to charge a gourmet price for it.
One thing that I'm really starting to notice in the process of writing these reviews is that it truly seems that the higher the price goes in da burgh, the more mediocre it becomes, and as I've stated in multiple reviews, I don't give two hoots about your 'atmosphere'. I'm going for the food. And if the food is overpriced and substandard, I'm gone.
This was definitely a FTLT (first time, last time) visit.
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