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| - The first frustration with The Mandrake was the parking. There were no open street spaces, so we pulled into the parking deck behind the restaurant (as mentioned on Open Table). There were no signs as to where you should park, so we pulled onto the 2nd floor. All staircases are locked and all doors can only be accessed with a key fob. Going from the 2nd floor of the garage to the 1st floor was great fun in heels. I called the restaurant to get directions and they were vague- an employee ended up coming to get us out of the deck. The door we were supposed to use as an exit was a loading dock door that was down a few stairs from the main level and had caution tape all across it...never would have thought that was a proper door to use as an exit. When mentioning the parking was quite a situation the response I received was "at least it's free". I don't know about you, but I would much rather spend a few bucks and have my car valeted- the deck is even set-up for that.
Once inside, we decided to get a drink and enjoy our time there. I was excited as this is a new restaurant to Charlotte and it was Restaurant Week! Our waitress let us know she was overwhelmed and that another waitress would be by to help us. It took the other gal a while to get there, but they were busy being RW, so no sweat. We go to order drinks and they're out of a key ingredient for my friend's cocktail. No big deal, she picked something else out.
Next, it's time to order dinner. We decided to do the limited RW menu and our waitress let us know that they were out of 2 dishes (of course these were 2 I really wanted) and that another dish had a substitution to part of it, but I decided to order it anyway. The waitress leaves to put in our order and comes back later to say the dish with the substitution is no longer available. 3 things I wanted to order were completely gone! Apparently the dishes that weren't available aren't part of their normal menu- I thought the whole point of RW was to get a sample of what the restaurant had to offer??
It became down right comical when my friend ordered a glass of wine with her dinner. The waitress came over with a half-pour of wine and let her know that is all that was left in house. It was on the house, but after half of their RW menu was gone as well it was enough to voice an open opinion.
As far as the food, it was so-so. I didn't have one dish that left a lasting impression. My steak was not cooked to the correct temp and didn't have much flavor, the chicken dish had an overwhelmingly grilled taste- barely tasted the coconut flavor of the dish. I will say the dessert I had did have a great flavor- pistachio semifreddo with ginger bark. Tasted pretty good, but the consistency was wrong. Thank goodness they served it in a small cup because it was practically soup.
In case you are wondering, the manager did come by to address the fact that they were out of beer cheese. At that point, I had to laugh and give him the laundry list of things that weren't right with our dining experience. He asked if we needed anything and I told him I just wanted to make it through this dinner. I had finished my cocktail and ordered another through him.- which was not that great. Although, I'll admit I'm a cocktail snob so I may be to critical there (but probably not). When I looked at my check, he had comped the cocktail.
I wish I could say that is where the frustrations ended, but they followed us right back to the parking lot. We could have walked down the street to the loading dock door and back up the garage ramp up to the 2nd floor, but the manager used his fob so that we could go through the main lobby and access the elevator. That was nice except that you can not access the floor we were parked on without having a key fob! Luckily, a lady in the elevator used hers and we were able to leave. Needless to say, I will never be back there again.
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