Sad to say, I'm not quite sure what all the hype is about…read more
We had to sit outside because the indoor dining room was fully booked for the show. The night actually started off great. Our server was funny, personable, and attentive, especially when it came to drinks and refills.
Things started going downhill when I received my entree, the Poor Man's Truffle. Unfortunately, the only way this dish lived up to its name was in how little the supposedly high-quality ingredients seemed to come through.
The dish itself is fairly simple, which normally isn't a bad thing when the ingredients are meant to speak for themselves. With Belper Knolle, truffle oil, pistachio pesto, tomato, fennel, and arugula, I expected something flavorful and well balanced. Instead, the entire dish tasted incredibly mild.
Belper Knolle is typically a bold, salty, peppery cheese, and I could visibly see the black pepper around the edges of the thin shavings, but the flavor barely registered. I also couldn't taste the truffle oil at all. There was visible oil pooling at the bottom of the plate, but no noticeable truffle flavor. I understand pistachio pesto tends to be more subtle than a traditional basil pesto, but altogether, this dish just fell completely flat for me.
The presentation didn't help either. It looked more like something that had been scooped from a pan and dropped onto the plate than a thoughtfully plated entree. When a dish misses both on flavor and presentation, that's when it becomes a real disappointment for me. I will say the gnocchi itself was cooked well, which was one of the few positives.
I also tried the burger, and it was significantly better than my pasta. However, the very small sprinkle of bacon was a little baffling considering it was an additional upcharge.
Where the night really went downhill was at the end of the meal. I had been excited to try the beignets because that isn't a dessert I see on menus very often. Our entree plates were cleared, and then we waited about 20 minutes before our server returned and asked whether we were ready for the check. Dessert wasn't mentioned, and by that point our table was tired of waiting, so we decided to skip it and asked for our checks.
Then our server disappeared for another 30 minutes.
We eventually had to flag down a hostess who was seating another table and let her know that we were still waiting for the check. About five minutes later, our server finally returned and casually explained how "crazy" the night had gotten because of the show. I understand restaurants get busy, but the apology felt very dismissive after we had waited nearly an hour from finishing our entrees to finally receiving the check. It genuinely felt like our table had simply been forgotten.
I also want to add that I tend to hold restaurants like this to a higher standard. I'm a big believer in "you get what you pay for." If I'm eating at a fast-food spot or somewhere inexpensive and casual, there's only so much room to complain. But when a restaurant has prices like this, highlights premium ingredients on the menu, and presents itself as a more elevated dining experience, I think that naturally opens the food and service up to more criticism. At that price point, I expect the quality, presentation, and overall experience to reflect what I'm paying for.
My final takeaway is that maybe I ordered the wrong dish. Pesto is one of my favorite things, so I almost always want to give a pesto-based dish a try. Unfortunately, Prohibition's pesto gnocchi was not it for me.
I also saw that they describe themselves as a scratch kitchen using high-quality, locally sourced ingredients, which I don't necessarily doubt. What confused me was how so many ingredients that should have distinct flavors somehow tasted like almost nothing.
If your goal is interesting drinks and a fun show, this is probably still a place worth considering. Since we sat outside, I can't speak on the show part, but it seems to be a big hit. Food-wise, though, it missed the mark for me.