| rev:text
| - This restaurant goes on my list of top ten worst dining experiences ever. While, admittedly, we went on a night when they were short-staffed because of several staff emergencies, most of our problems with the place would have occurred even if they had more staff.
On the positive side, the restaurant is really beautiful inside - very elegant and stylishly decorated. Charlotte really needs more restaurants like Kalu (at least in strategy). However, our overall experience was so poor that we would absolutely never return.
Here were some of the reasons why:
1) Kalu is kind of off-the-beaten-path, and not in a good way. There is no private lot with free parking, but at least they now have valet parking (which I will only use if I have to). If you prefer to park in a garage near EpiCentre, you will walk a couple of blocks to get there in a not-so-nice area.
2) At Kalu, they bring food out at random. There's no trying to coordinate items at your table so all parties are at least eating something at the same time. My husband got his appetizer and two entrees before the other two of us got anything. That's ridiculous.
3) Food is brought by all of the waiters, but you can forget asking them for anything. We asked one waiter for some water, and he said we would have to ask our server for that. What?!
4) Portions are small. The Pork Shiu Mai was served as three dumplings. The Ishiyaki Steak was served as two tiny skewers. The Unagi Sansho (eel sushi) was also a small portion (four pieces, I think). The Shoyu Truffle Butter rice pot could be shared if you got other items to fill you up. You really need to order more than you normally do to feel full.
5) There was nothing spectacular about the food. I know that Kalu made Esquire's recent top 20 list of US restaurants, but maybe the reviewer ordered the more costly things that we did not. The only dish we really liked was the truffle butter rice pot, and it was not good enough for us to want to return.
6) The prices are high for the portion sizes. Yes, I know, we Americans expect big portions, but I'd at least like to feel full after eating an appetizer and an entree. I did not. Our friend was not so lucky. He NEVER GOT his main entree, so he just told the waitress to forget it so we could leave.
I know the staff were frazzled because our waitress kept apologizing, but she never really checked to see how we were doing. It literally took 20 minutes from placing our drink order to actually get our drinks. (The food started arriving before we got our drinks.) The executive chef brought out one of our items and our friend kindly asked if they were having a bad day. He mentioned the emergencies bit, but he failed to apologize for the experience. That would have gone a long way in our book. Overall, the staff (including the executive chef) need a refresher course in providing good service if they want any customers to return. And the menu, well, just go there expecting to pay a bundle and make sure you order enough to at least go home full.
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