We came here for dinner last night after walking by on Saturday night and being turned away because the place was too crowded. Seemed like a good sign! We knew it was pricey, and we went in expecting to treat ourselves to a nice meal.
We were very disappointed in our service, unfortunately. The food was a mix of okay and terrible. We were swindled out of our money, as our waiter, David, never let us know that the menu was family style. That's the gist of it, but I'll write more details below.
We waited for about 15 mins before our waiter greeted us, and told us to go pick a bottle of wine from the wall. This came as a surprise to us, because we did not yet have a menu. He was gone before we could ask him for one.
We aren't snobs or anything, but we do like to know what we are eating before choosing a wine. So we were a bit confused and just kind of sat awkwardly waiting for him to come back. When we finally were shown the menu, we were given no explanation whatsoever.
Our waiter came back to ask us what we wanted to drink, and we had only had the menu for a few minutes, so I let him know that we could start with water because we still weren't sure what we wanted to eat. He didn't say anything at all, and instead just took our wine glasses away and looked irritated. So we may have gotten a bottle, but he seemed to decide for us.
We decided on our entrees and an appetizer, and he came back to take our orders. Again, he did not let us know anything ahead of time, just asked us what we wanted. We ordered the mussel appetizer first. My boyfriend ordered the ribs, and I ordered the seated duck breast. When I told him what I wanted, he immediately told me that the duck a la orange was much better and gave me this whole explanation as to why. I was already overwhelmed so I just asked if I could stick to the duck breast and he just shrugged and wrote it down and walked away. At this point, he should have let us know how much food we were ordering.
I felt at that point that we were being treated really rudely. Which was disappointing, because we saw our waiter being very attentive and enthusiastic when talking to other tables. We honesty weren't sure what we had done wrong.
Our mussels came out in about 20 minutes, and we were kind of shocked at the portion size. It was bigger than I'd expect a mussel entree to be. They were the one redeeming factor of the meal, but we couldn't finish it knowing that we had two entrees on the way.
Our entrees came out on giant plates, with a heap of mashed potatoes, enough to feed an army. It was immediately obvious to us that they were meant to be shared, as there was no way we could have eaten everything, even without an appetizer.
My duck was extraordinarily mediocre, and the ribs were fine. Nothing to be excited about. The mashed potatoes were so salty that I couldn't eat them. And I mean, really salty. I grew up in a Hispanic household, watching my grandmother pour salt in the rice pot for a few solid seconds. I love salt. I've actually never been able to not eat something because it was too salty. It was honesty disgusting.
Not long after that another couple was sat nearby, and we overheard our waiter give a speech about how large the portions were and that he recommended sharing and appetizer and an entree. I was frustrated that we weren't told, and couldn't help but feel like we had been squeezed out of our money.
We are from New York City so I was not surprised at the prices, given that the atmosphere was of a high end restaurant. But still, I would have loved to save 30 dollars and not be wasteful. We ended up leaving more than half of the food on our plates. And we couldn't bring it back to our hotel, as we knew we wouldn't be able to have leftovers the next day.
Our waiter came back when we were almost done with out plates to tell us to enjoy and disappeared again. We were done with our food, but I had given up on the service at that point. He came back a few minutes later and didn't ask how the food was. I would think that he would notice how much food was left on our plates. My mashed potato pile was basically untouched. He took the food away and brought us our check without asking if we wanted dessert. (We didn't because we were too full, but still). As he handed us the check he asked us to please go online and let them know how our experience was, and to be sure to mention his name.
So, that's what I'm doing. We didn't complain at all directly, because we aren't those kind of people. But I left the restaurant really disappointed that our one splurge dinner was borderline bad, and that it could have been much cheaper if we had known how the menu worked.
We certainly could have read about the family style in a review, but I don't think that you should have to do that to enjoy a restaurant experience. I honestly would not recommend this restaurant at all, to anyone. read more