What did you cook or eat today (May 2024)?

[karadekoolaid]

and I was particularly stylish in salmon-colored shorts, a fern-patterned shirt, grey canvas shoes, and a white woven Greek-style hat.

You mean Calvin Klein didn't rush there to say hello? SHAME on him!

 

[TastyReuben]

Out for our anniversary (which is tomorrow):

I’ve never had bruschetta with hot roasted tomatoes, but I quite liked it - pizza!

There was a cream of potato soup with hunks of ham in it, quite good, but it made an ugly photo.

NY strip with white peppercorn sauce, decent and au gratin potatoes, which were bone dry. They’ll appear again in tomorrow’s breakfast.

MrsT has the twin filets - one was excellent, one was dry and mealy - I said that’s was the side he rubbed up against the fence probably.

She also added a crab cake because market price lobster tail was $62 to add on, and she wouldn’t pay it.

Turtle cheesecake, which was…ok

Coffees were ok, but I don’t care how expensive a place we go to, or how inexpensive a place we go to, chophouse coffee is never hot. It’s barely past room temp, which is a sin to my palate.

Mine had Chambord, baileys, and chocolate liqueur in it, MrsT’s had baileys and caramel syrup.

All in all, it wasn’t a great experience, service was definitely amiss, very rushed (and they were far from crowded), and not terribly attentive. Some of the food was above average, some below. Just spotty overall. We won’t be back for a long time (this was only our second visit in 20 years, though).

 

[karadekoolaid]

Well, sometimes a place just hits the spot, and sometimes it doesn't.
Never mind - as long as you enjoyed yourselves, that's the most important thing.

 

[TastyReuben]

Well, sometimes a place just hits the spot, and sometimes it doesn't.
Never mind - as long as you enjoyed yourselves, that's the most important thing.

Yeah, and the truth is, we did, and we didn’t treat our server poorly with the tip or anything.

My main gripe was being so rushed. When we first ordered our appetizer, she said, “If you know what you want for your main meal, you can order now and I’ll hold off putting it in until I see you’re nearly finished with your starter.” - common practice, no problem.

What happened next? 10 minutes after the appetizer came out, we were barely half through it, and out came the soup! On top of that, she sat the bowls on the table and said, “Let me just scoot everything over so it fits,” and pushed the plates we were actively eating from off to the side!

When it came time for dessert, our server had her assistant clear some dishes away, and we were still having our wine (we don’t drink so much while we’re eating, we tend to leave the lion’s share until after we’ve eaten).

She asked if we wanted dessert, and we said we did, and we ordered, but MrsT pointedly said, “We’d like to enjoy the rest of our wine first, though, please, so take your time.” - a polite way of saying, “Stop rushing us, please!”

Three minutes later…out comes our coffees and the cheesecake, and we each had nearly a half-glass of wine left!

 

[msmofet]

Homemade - spinach and cheese stuffed shells, meatballs, and sauce. Topped with fresh grated parmigiano reggiano & pecorino romano cheeses.

 

[medtran49]

Yeah, and the truth is, we did, and we didn’t treat our server poorly with the tip or anything.

My main gripe was being so rushed. When we first ordered our appetizer, she said, “If you know what you want for your main meal, you can order now and I’ll hold off putting it in until I see you’re nearly finished with your starter.” - common practice, no problem.

What happened next? 10 minutes after the appetizer came out, we were barely half through it, and out came the soup! On top of that, she sat the bowls on the table and said, “Let me just scoot everything over so it fits,” and pushed the plates we were actively eating from off to the side!

When it came time for dessert, our server had her assistant clear some dishes away, and we were still having our wine (we don’t drink so much while we’re eating, we tend to leave the lion’s share until after we’ve eaten).

She asked if we wanted dessert, and we said we did, and we ordered, but MrsT pointedly said, “We’d like to enjoy the rest of our wine first, though, please, so take your time.” - a polite way of saying, “Stop rushing us, please!”

Three minutes later…out comes our coffees and the cheesecake, and we each had nearly a half-glass of wine left!

Yeah, no. Kind of surprised Mrs. T didn't have something to say to management.

 

[Windigo]

Chicken Satay , rice and green beans and carrots

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

No ripe avocado, so lunch was sourdough, hummus, pear chutney and tofu

Evening meal was meant to be beans on toast with a poached egg.

Apparently, we had no baked beans!

 

[badjak]

Pasta

 

[TastyReuben]

Yeah, no. Kind of surprised Mrs. T didn't have something to say to management.

I think it’s just so ingrained in a lot of restaurants here to turn over tables, it’s ridiculous.

What was also interesting to me: it was Saturday night. We had early reservations, so it wasn’t terribly busy, maybe 1/3rd full, but by the time we left, it was 8:30PM…they should be filling up by then, right?

Nope. Not only that, no place was packing them in, judging by the parking lots. We drove by The Chophouse, J. Alexander’s, Carrabba’s, an upscale pub, an upscale tequila place, another upscale pub, between 8:45PM-9PM.

Every place was well under half full, judging from the parking lots. Not even any activity at the doors as we drove by - usually, you see at least one person going in or coming out, or a line forming…something, but no, each place was dead.

Back to being rushed, just a little side story - one year, we went to a place (now closed, thank goodness) that was advertised as the area’s most romantic restaurant, blah blah blah, and it’s probably still the worst dining experience we ever had - we were so rushed that our waiter actually cleared our plates while we were eating from them, as in, I had food on my fork heading to my mouth, and then when he brought our dessert coffees, he tried to take our half-filled wine glasses, including the one MrsT was still holding!

Like I said, those were just two of several missteps, so we got that evening comped and a return visit comped, and when we went back, it was nearly as bad, and then they closed for good maybe a month later.

 

[msmofet]

Brunch was poached eggs (with a pat of butter), a toasted and buttered onion bagel.

 

[detroitdad]

 

[JAS_OH1]

Yeah, and the truth is, we did, and we didn’t treat our server poorly with the tip or anything.

My main gripe was being so rushed. When we first ordered our appetizer, she said, “If you know what you want for your main meal, you can order now and I’ll hold off putting it in until I see you’re nearly finished with your starter.” - common practice, no problem.

What happened next? 10 minutes after the appetizer came out, we were barely half through it, and out came the soup! On top of that, she sat the bowls on the table and said, “Let me just scoot everything over so it fits,” and pushed the plates we were actively eating from off to the side!

When it came time for dessert, our server had her assistant clear some dishes away, and we were still having our wine (we don’t drink so much while we’re eating, we tend to leave the lion’s share until after we’ve eaten).

She asked if we wanted dessert, and we said we did, and we ordered, but MrsT pointedly said, “We’d like to enjoy the rest of our wine first, though, please, so take your time.” - a polite way of saying, “Stop rushing us, please!”

Three minutes later…out comes our coffees and the cheesecake, and we each had nearly a half-glass of wine left!

And this is one reason why I love mystery shopping. If they are screwing up, upper management gets to find out. If they are doing a great job, management gets to find out. It's trained me as well to never order my next course until the one before it has been delivered. I often have to time the delivery of each course so it's just easier to keep track of things that way, so it became a habit. It would be nice though if when customers say "we're not in a hurry" they'd listen.

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

Well a revelatory news on the fast food front.
Burger King in Spain has collaborated with Spains version of the Coeliac Society and now has a gluten free offering on the menu everywhere.

It might not mean much to most folk but that for me is great news because when meandering about BK are the dominant services chain and that means I can get easily something to eat on the most main routes, that in turn means I can carry a little bit less food with me
It also means other places may follow suit.

Today I had a burger like a normal person

 

[karadekoolaid]

All in all, it wasn’t a great experience, service was definitely amiss, very rushed (and they were far from crowded), and not terribly attentive. Some of the food was above average, some below. Just spotty overall.

Looking at your photos, I'd say they need to do some serious work on the plating, which looks very basic. And your comments, considering the prices, are very justified.