Everything was not good. Nothing was direly bad, but entirely the whole experience was a comedy of errors.
We stood waiting for a few minutes at the door, not a big deal but in hindsight it added up.
Being 5 of us, we couldn't sit at the luxurious 4 or 8 person tables so we were relegated to the tiny bar stools at the 6 person tables. The tables were unsecured pieces of glass on barrels - neat but not the most safe and annoying to sit at with them wobbling around. The two pushed together that we had were uneven with each other and not at a comfortable height combined with the stools.
Our server came for our drink order and I asked which part of the menu was draft, they said it was the one single beer (Sam's 16oz for $10) listed and everything else was bottle/cans ($9). Got our drinks without issue. A little weird they serve everything beer in a pint glass.
The server took an inordinate amount of time to come back for our order and had to stand next to each person to hear us over the music playing overhead.
Our food came out in kind of a long time for what we got.
Order 1: Jumbo Lump Crab Cake ($29); Asked the server if the sauce was on top or the side, server said side (that was preferred) but apparently didn't verify and it came out slathered with sauce. The crab cake itself didn't taste very good and had very little texture, pâté like. If it was originally jumbo lump crab meat, the kitchen does not know how to handle it, there were no identifiable lumps of crab. "It tastes like cat food."
Order 2: Pulled Pork Mac ($22); A bowl of mac with some pulled pork on top. Not the best but no complaints.
Order 3: Burger, with fries, medium, American cheese ($18); burger was under cooked at about med rare and was a meatball instead of a burger with cheddar instead of American. Fries were significantly undercooked (middles could still snap) and not really steak fries, more like little wedges. Missing ketchup.
Order 4: Burger, with jalapeno mac n cheese, cheddar, medium rare ($18); Again it was a meatball not a burger but I guess that's a style or something. Internal temp was correct but the bottom was charred black and hard (you could tap it). The server tried to claim it was blacken seasoning but it was clearly just burnt. The burger had a slab of tomato 3/4in thick, there was possibly more tomato than burger. Anyway, lots of tomato: fine, but the burger got cold fast because of it. And no ketchup. Mac n cheese was okay, pasta cooked nicely, texture was good, but there wasn't much flavor coupled with too much heat for the lack of flavor.
Order 5: Drunk Duck Quesadilla ($23); Very little filling and unevenly filled. The first piece on top had almost no filling. The second piece had slightly more but still more tortilla that filling. The duck was too finely cut and the texture of the filling was a little slimy but the flavor was good.
With pretty much everyone unsatisfied at the table, the manager appeared at the table, unsolicited. They were nice and polite. They tried to ask if they could appease us by redoing or ordering other items on the menu but we all just wanted to get the check and go. They kept insisting on giving us a dessert and we told them if they brought anything out it should be plated to go. They insisted that our experience was not how they hoped or is normally and wanted us to come back to try them again. This led me to believe they wouldn't be taking anything off the bill but would instead send us home with a ~$20 gift card/food voucher or something. We got neither. I should've explicitly asked for at least one of the meals to be comped but I didn't think in this instance I would have to ask. At least we weren't charged for the dessert we didn't really want or ask for.
What a terrible birthday meal. read more