Her Perspective: C
His perspective: D
This restaurant is unique in that it has enclosed the bar so people can smoke. That's one reason William likes this place. We went for dinner and sat at the rail of the bar. We were greeted generally quickly by the bartender, who continued to be somewhat attentive throughout our visit. He was also very friendly. Since they serve Pepsi product, William couldn't get his usual Jack and Coke, so he settled for a beer. I ordered a cocktail I used to drink regularly, a Purple Rain. It was mixed perfectly. We got our drinks quickly and a few minutes later (the bartender had almost a full rail, so he was busy), he asked us if we would like menus. We looked them over and waited a few more minutes to order.
We started with southwest style Egg Rolls (similar to Chili's, but we wanted to compare) and cheese curds. The Egg Rolls are better tasting than Chili's, but most of them were refrigerator cold in the middle. The cheese curds were burnt. These were taken off the bill.
For entrees, I ordered the Cajun Shrimp Penne and William ordered the Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo. My plate presentation was sloppy with sauce slopped on the rim and even some sauce underneath the plate. I was very disappointed when I started eating because there was no flavor to the dish. Being that it's supposed to be cajun, I expected some spice and some flavor, but all I could taste were the noodles themselves. I pushed my plate forward and the bartender asked if I needed a box. I told him that there was no flavor to the dish and asked if I could look at the menu again. I ordered some potato skins. These were very hot and fresh, tasted decent, but they needed salt and pepper. However, a server had come by and taken our salt and pepper shakers to be washed. William's dish was also quite bland and needed salt, but we still had the shakers at that point.
Regarding value for the money, I would say they are somewhat overpriced. We were charged $6.29 for four potato skins. I would expect to get six for that price since it's cheap to make, especially since our food experience had been much less than stellar. The other dishes had a large amount of food compared to the price.
My dish was taken off the bill and the bartender even bought us a round of drinks. However, William had told him that he just wanted a Mountain Dew, but the bartender cracked another beer and told him it was on the house anyway.
Over all, we were very disappointed in a place that usually has much better food than this. The service was decent - nothing to write home about, but they did take care of us and whatever problems we had how I would expect a restaurant should.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
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3 comments:
I'm not sure why we even bother to keep coming back here every few months. The food never seems to improve (to me anyway) and I never finish everything I ordered.
This time, it was all either very bland or over cooked.
The bartender gave me a free beer when I specifically said (twice even) that I wanted a Mountain Dew. I guess Mountain Dew is the new code for MGD or something.
My pasta was pasta. I think there was a sauce on it, but I couldn't really taste anything. There were some bits of warm chicken in there though.
I was a little annoyed when an employee came and took away the salt and pepper, especially since I needed both about 10 minutes later.
One other thing that annoyed me: They had a couple baseball games on the TV's, no problem. They had also routed the audio for one of the games into the bar area sound system, no problem there either.
I did start having a problem when someone kept turning up the volume though. It got so bad that at times I couldn't hear Maryanne talk, and she was sitting on a stool right next to me. This was also about the time that the bartender gave me a second beer instead of the soda I asked for.
Maybe he couldn't hear either. Should've been a hint.
It sounds liike the bartender was just being nice to you. Get over yourself! I usually have problems even getting a bartenders attention! It sounded like he felt really bad about the bad food and was just trying hard to make up for it. Oh, poor you, a bartender gave you a round of drinks on the house! You (William) sound like one of those impossible to please customers that people in the industry dread. Crabby, hard to please, and just an all around negative guy. I'm sure you tipped him well though, right?
I don't mind that he was trying to make up for it, and that isn't my problem. I specifically ordered one thing, and after a short back-and-forth with the drink-giver confirming I just wanted a soda, I ended up being handed something I didn't want and specifically did not ask for.
I'm not at all impossible to please, and there are a couple reviews on here where I said it wasn't bad to me and Maryanne had issues. I simply want what I ordered, as described on the menu, prepared as requested. If I order a steak Medium, and get it Well Done, then I have a problem. It's not my fault, its just that I didn't order it Well Done (for example).
Timely and proper service, food as described and ordered, all based on the class or level of service the establishment offers (i.e. I expect more from fine dining than I do from fast food) is all I'm looking for. If everyone does their job the way they are supposed to, then I'm happy. I can understand if the kitchean gets backed up and busy, or if they have a broken grill or something and it takes longer, all the server has to do is say something to let me know that we haven't been forgotten.
We've eaten at the Cherokee place in Eagan before we started this review board, and after 2 hours of very bad service, we were invited back with $50 coupon. While we stat there, 2 parties of 4 and 7 people that arrived after us had been seated, served and had already paid and left before we got our food. After asking for melted butter for my crab legs (and never getting it) we decided we weren't going to eat there for again for awhile. I think that was 2 years ago?
What I'm trying to say is that I'm not at all hard to please, but who serves crab legs without butter? And who in there right mind wouldn't get melted butter for a customer when they were asked to do so? Things like this annoy the hell out of me, and they quite simply shouldn't happen.
When I eat somewhere, and I'm paying $100 per person for a meal, I expect a certain level of service, cleanliness and atmosphere from a place. Same deal when it's only $5 a person, just to a much lesser degree. We've been to a little hole in the wall bar in Minneapolis a few times just for the burgers. They were properly cooked, served fast and hot as expected. We tipped well.
I've been to fine dining in St. Paul and paid almost $200 dollars for horrid service, and at the same place We've paid just over $100 and had excellent service. It just seems that, lately, no matter where we go we semem to have problems.
In the case of Champps, yeah we tipped. Just not as well as we would've if the food had been good and I had gotten what I ordered instead of what I was handed.
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