Tonight I was invited to a catered event at the three flames restaurant. It was a special birthday party for a dear friend of ours.
When we first walked into the banquet hall, there was an odd feeling about this place. The smell of the banquet hall was stuffy and no pleasant. We found our seats after we greeted the birthday guest of honor, and her family. Very pleasant and friendly family. We lined up at the buffet line to pick our food. The first bad impression was, seeing one of the wait staff refill the green salad bowl with a plastic ice cream bucket with only iceberg and romaine lettuce, no tomatoes or Any other vegetables. The salad dressings were all dripping and not replaced with clean ladles and fresh dressings. The rolls were ice cold and stale. Then there was this potato salad that came out of either a box or a bucket. It was so sweet with relish I couldn't choke it down. And they garnished it with shredded carrots and red cabbage! lol! Then they put out some kind of toasted baguettes with light oil or butter! It tasted like it was stale bread that was baked till it was crispy! Then there was this fruit platter that looked very sad. It had large chunks of pineapple melons these huge red grapes, but no fresh strawberries! There in season right now! Now let's get to the hot food choices. There was a chaffing dish with these roasted potatoes with grated Parmesan cheese on it, it was ok. Just needed some other flavor, like a sprinkle of rosemary or something! Then there was this chicken dish that had chicken tenders in it, it looked almost like Marsala or something! Then there was the roast beef. The meat was cut into 2x2cubes, with nothing with it! Very dry looking and very boring. Then there was this salmon dish. OMG, I d never seen the salmon tail portions stacked up in a chaffing dish, every piece was so thin, every was so dry and really fishy like it was previously frozen and cooked for a longtime! The worst salmon I've ever had at any catered event I've been to! There was no lemon of any sauce for the salmon. I took one bite, and almost threw up! It must have been either chum salmon or a very low quality salmon. Every piece was about 2inches wide and a half inch thick! lol! Then there was this meat lasagna! lol! There was no tomato sauce or any cheese in it! It was so dry, it was almost drier than the salmon! My girlfriend loves lasagna, but she just couldn't eat it. It had no flavor, moisture, or anything! Then there was their fresh vegetables! lol!!! There was carrots, broccoli, and zucchini. The carrots were aldente, the broccoli was aldente but gray, and the zucchini was all mushy!
This restaurant and their banquets are very disappointing. They had glasses of water at every seat, but they filled every glass to the very top of the glass with very little ice! The coffee tasted like burnt wood, a very low quality coffee, must have been Folgers, because it tasted like the same coffee I had at another restaurant I was at and that restaurant was terrible also.
The walls were dirty and dingy., chipped paint and splintered wood paneling.
For restaurant that was supposed to be good, it was the worst food and service I've ever had! When I found out how much they charged for the food for I'm guessing 100 people, I was shocked and flabbergasted! It was nowhere near that huge amount of money worth it! I will never recommend this place to any of my friends and family that live in the San Jose.
I'm a retired catering chef, restaurant owner and butcher for almost 40 years. I've never had a bad experience like this.
This place better get their shit together before they lose everything!
And I can't believe they had four to five wait staff working this event. The lady manager who was working the front end, looked like she doesn't care about the food or service in this restaurant. She had no smile and was very short with us in directing us to the banquet room. She points to the arrow outside and says, just follow the arrows! lol! She could have escorted us, there was no customers at the front desk and looked like there was no one in the restaurant. I recipe I don't have to attend another function there ever again, and I'm sure I will not be going there for the restaurant part.
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