| rev:text
| - The short version? The highpoint of the meal was a baked potato.
The longer version is this. I'm perfectly happy to pay $175 for dinner (with tip). But (and this is going to sound weird), said meal should be worth it. Crazy talk, I know.
First, the good: it's a very attractive space. Ambience get's an A-. The hostess was very nice and courteous - same for our waitress. Both get an A. That, however, is where the good news ends.
We had a couple cocktails to begin - my girlfriend had a vodka/berry/something-or-other chick drink. She seemed reasonably happy with it. I had a Moscow Mule. I'm fairly confident there was some vodka in it but I can't be sure. It was a very weak pour. I'm not suggesting that it should be fraternity-guy-strong. But it felt like the bartender was using one of those automatic liquor disperser thingies that precisely measures exactly 1 oz shots - not a drop more. Very corporate-esque. That sort of thing is fine in a chain restaurant. Certainly not at a place with this price point.
On to the wine list; it was decent if somewhat short. Ended up ordering a Chateau St. Michelle cab - decent wine, decent price. It was even cellar temperature so thumbs up on that one.
To the food then. To begin, we split a grilled artichoke for an appetizer - generously sized portion, well prepared, and well presented. A-. Why "minus"? The aoli tasted like it came from a jar.
Then the entrees. Ugh. Where do I begin? Well, my girlfriend had their Chicken Paillard. I'm all for restaurants interpreting recipes in their own way. But this was more like arugula salad that happened to have some chicken buried underneath. The only similarity to Chicken Paillard it had was the name. When I asked her how it was, she said "It's food." This, by the way, is our code for: its edible but not something I ever want to eat again. C+ at best.
Then my entrée. I had the bone-in, New York Strip with a side of sautéed mushrooms. $38. When you charge that for a steak, you place yourself squarely in the crosshairs of the big boys: Morton's, Ruth's Chris, Smith & Wollensky's, et cetera. So you better have your sh*t together. In this case, Chop brought a (very small) knife to a gun fight. I'm not going to say it was the worst steak I've ever had. But it was every bit the worst $38 steak I've ever had. Even though it was cooked perfectly, it was tough. Really tough. As in "Are you f*cking kidding me?" tough. I looked but didn't see any marks from where the jockey was hitting it. But it was dark in there so who knows. To add insult to injury: the mushrooms were cold and had waaaaayyyyy too much vinegar on them (psst: they're not pickles guys). Kind of a final middle finger from Chop to us. D- And that's being generous.
The bright silver lining here was the baked potato. Yep, that was the highlight of the meal. We actually ended up having a good natured argument as to who got to eat it since we had both abandoned our entrees very early on.
So again: the staff did their job. But the owners are cheaping-out where it counts: on the ingredients (except for the potato: that was kick ass).
My take: if you want this caliber dining, go to Applebees or any of the other faceless, soulless corporate places out there and save yourself $125. Because this is "food", no more and no less.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)