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| - I almost feel a little bit guilty writing this review, as Binkley's is one of my favorite restaurants of all time, and I really want them to succeed in having a location that's A) much closer to me/most people who live in the Phoenix metro area and B) more affordable than Binkley's.
However, that being said, I was somewhat let down by my experience here about three weeks ago, and feel compelled to write about it in the hopes that they might remedy some of the issues that Yelpers are consistently bringing up.
In short: food quite good but not excellent, service mediocre bordering on poor. The fact that the service was thoroughly "meh" was a real shock to me, as Binkley's has IMPECCABLE service (as is to be expected for the price range). However, while Bink's Midtown is much more affordable than Binkley's, it is not cheap. It's actually on the expensive side. Thus, I was expecting service commensurate with the price range, which is not what we received.
I had a 7:30 reservation for a Tuesday evening. It was somewhat busy when we got there, but by no means packed. When we came in, we waited for nearly 10 minutes or so until we were greeted-after about 5 minutes, the bartender waved to us and said the hostess should be back soon. However, multiple other parties had arrived while we were waiting up front, and everyone was left to stand around awkwardly while we waited for someone to say something to us/seat us. When the hostess finally came back to the front, we weren't offered the option to sit outside, despite the fact that it was a nice evening weather-wise and the tables outside weren't full. However, I'm not holding that against them-I didn't ask to sit outside, and I could've had I really wanted to.
The level of service did not improve from there, unfortunately. Our server seemed did not seem knowledgeable about the food, was somewhat unprofessional (i.e. chatting loudly with the other servers in the dining room), and timed her visits at our table very poorly (i.e. way too many within the first few minutes of sitting down, before we'd had a chance to look at the menu, and far too few once we actually wanted to order/after we'd received our food/when we wanted to order drinks to go with our entrees). Even the servers bringing out the food weren't all that great. For example, at one point (halfway through the meal, strangely) they brought out the bread. The bread was some sort of biscuits with a large pat of apple butter on top. However, the way they placed said apple butter on the hot biscuits ensured that that large pat of butter began to slide off the biscuits immediately, and was threatening to fall onto the table when I attempted to save it with my finger. Big mistake-I hadn't realized (and they hadn't mentioned) that the dish the biscuits were served in were HOT, and I burned my finger. Yes, that's partially my fault, but really, they should've served the apple butter on the side or placed it with more care so that it didn't fall onto the table almost immediately, creating a mess and making it basically unusable for us. Overall, the service was just disappointing and seemed disorganized. I know they're still relatively new, but really, given the experience the Binkleys have in running fine dining establishments, they should be addressing the service issues ASAP.
Anyway, onto the food. We got the roasted cauliflower, the spaghetti squash, and the grapefruit off the hot/cold menu to start. All three were OUTSTANDING. They definitely showed the quality and uniqueness that Binkley's is known for.
The entrees, unfortunately, were not quite as good. I was there with my mom and boyfriend; she ordered the duck, he ordered the rainbow trout, and I ordered the sand dabs. Both the trout and sand dabs were fairly good, but far from great. I didn't come close to finishing the sand dabs-something about the texture was just odd to me, though the flavors were pretty good. My mom enjoyed the duck, but given that I'm a pescatarian, I didn't try any.
For dessert, we ordered the navel orange and the peanut butter creme brulee. The navel orange was very good, if not very filling, and utilized the classic Binkleys molecular-gastronomy deal (in other words, things that make you say "Oooooh!"). The peanut butter creme brulee would've been amazing, were it not for the bananas hidden within the delicious creme brulee. I'm not a big fan of the texture of bananas anyway, but really, the bananas within the creme brulee was wayyyyy too much mushy softness for me. It was unfortunate, because the flavors were delicious and I suspect I would've really loved it, had it not been for those pesky bananas messing up the texture.
I'd definitely be willing to give Bink's Midtown another try after they've been open longer, but it might be a while (maybe in the fall, once the weather is nice enough to sit on the patio again without roasting).
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