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| - I have one word to describe Merci: CLUELESS. The food wasn't bad, not great, but certainly not bad. So why do we say "Clueless"? To start with, we've passed the place many times (we shop at the Fry's nearby) but it's far from obvious what they are: it could be a clothing store or a French Bistro or...we couldn't tell from driving past. And no website as far as we can see.
But we saw it on Check Please Arizona and decided to give it a try for dinner. Unfortunately, from the moment we walked in, the tone was set. The owner himself was out front and tried to steer us to the counter...until he saw the bottle of wine we'd brought (they are BYOB). Then he said, take whatever table you'd like...which we did. Couldn't he have asked whether we were there for dinner? Apparently not. Clueless.
The waitress was friendly enough (nice nose ring) but was largely no where to be found...even though she was within spitting distance the whole time we were there. The two of us sat at a 4-top, so did she clear the other two settings? Nope. Did she fill our water glasses? Nope. Fill our wine glasses...even once? Not a chance...though we are paying for corkage.
We started with escargot to share...not bad (good quality snails), done classic Bourguignon style with the addition of a bit of pesto. Came with two HUGE pieces of (ice cold) bread and a side salad (maybe makes sense at lunch, but why as an appetizer at dinner?), but only one plate and one escargot fork between the two of us...couldn't they manage two when we told her we were sharing? Nope, Clueless.
For our main courses, we ordered Beef (boeuf) Bourguignon (better than average even with the store-bought noodles) and "steak au poivre"...but she had no idea what "au poivre" meant until I showed her the menu: "steak with pepper sauce" (which was decent, though short on "poivre"). Did she ask how I wanted the steak cooked? Of course not. Clueless.
We could go on...e.g., she couldn't be bothered to pick up the money we left...but we'll spare you the details. Simply said, they are CLUELESS!
We may give it a try at breakfast or lunch, but again for dinner? Not a chance.
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