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| - I went here with my family about 2 years ago and was pleasantly surprised to find such good food near my home. I returned on 3/13/15 and, again, the food was excellent. My neighbor and I had the Surf & Turf, the most expensive menu item. I'm not a big beef eater but this dish was outstanding, the steak was cooked to perfection as were the shrimp. The fig demi sauce was exquisite.
THEN I RETURNED A WEEK LATER..... It was about 5 pm and no one was in the restaurant but me. I ordered the Surf & Turf again yet it took more than 20 minutes for me to be served. I ordered a glass of iced tea. What I received was a lukewarm liquid with 3 rapidly melting cubes of ice. I asked my waiter, a very nice young man named Anthony, how the iced tea was prepared. He said that HOT TEA was poured in the glass with very little ice. I told him to fill up the glass to the top with ice, THEN put the tea in.
My food finally arrived. IT WAS DISGUSTING! The steak was overcooked, so tough I couldn't chew it. The bacon wrapped around it was raw. The meat was literally drowned in a nasty looking brownish gravy - not the fig demi sauce. I asked that the mashed potatoes be substituted with Pancetta Sautéd Spinach. What I got some tasteless, overcooked, slimy green vegetable, with old barely cooked hard asparagus thrown on top.
When I told Anthony about it, he immediately offered to have the chef refire the dish. He apologized, saying my meal was cooked by the restaurant's top chef. Really? So I waited another 15 minutes for a replacement place. Again, no one was in the restaurant except me. There were 2 woman who were obviously Anthony's managers or supervisors noisily preparing a 6 top and an 8 top right next to my booth for expected diners. Not one of them said a thing to me or Anthony. And the chef never came to my table to apologize for that really bad dish and find out if the replacement was to my satisfaction.
It wasn't. While it was somewhat better than its predecessor, it was still not the excellent meal I had just a week prior. The steak was cooked perfectly but the bacon was still undone. And the fig demi sauce was not reduced properly - the chef only put less of it on the plate so the second time my food wasn't drowning in the still tasteless slop.
By that time, I was over Amaro. I ate half of my meal and had Anthony wrap the rest for me to go. He returned with a tiny uncoated cardboard box with grease stains on it. I paid the bill - $40 with tax and tip. That was for ONE entrée for ONE person - no appetizer, desert, or alcohol.
I'd started this review while sitting in the restaurant and should have taken a photo of that really awful looking and tasting plate. But I decided instead to contact the restaurant with my complaint when I got home. The following morning I received a email from co-owner, Terri Woodmansee. She apologized profusely, stating that the health inspector was in the restaurant at the time and that it is required that the chef or manager accompany him during his rounds. Then she told me that my meal - the most expensive item on the menu - was prepared by a LINE COOK IN TRAINING! I was stunned! The Surf & Turf is not a complicated dish, but it came out like nothing I'd seen in 45 years of restaurant dining.
Ms. Woodmansee didn't even see how ridiculous her response was. Why wasn't the restaurant closed during the inspection if the regular chef was busy and the line cook couldn't manage ONE plate for the ONLY patron? And who were the 2 women setting up tables right next to me? One had to be a manager yet neither came to my table to see if my order was correct the second time. In fact, I was totally ignored the entire time I was in the place. I kind of stood out, being the only black person in there - as I had been every time I've gone.
I've dined at Gordon Ramsay's Maze at the London in NYC and "Top Chef" Tom Coliccio's Craft, and the very expensive The Waterside Inn near Windsor Castle in England (and a favorite restaurant of the British royal family), plus 5-star restaurants in San Francisco, London, Washington DC, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. In every single establishment, a manager, maîtr'd, owner or chef has come to my table it there was a problem - even when the place was packed to the rafters with diners. Yet, at Amaro, even the line cook in training didn't give me the courtesy or respect of acknowledging me.
The owner asked me to come back in return for a free glass of wine or dessert! I spent $100 on the 13th and $40 on the 24th for an inedible meal and all she could offer me was an $8 item? I replied that the very least she could have done was comp the Surf & Turf I've paid for already. No response!
No patron should be have to take a backseat to the health inspector or have their meal relegated to a rookie cook. The owner's lame excuse and her lack of accountability shows incompetence. I'll never go back!!
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