An Evening in the Twin Cities: 07/18/2010

Sunday, July 18, 2010

St Claire Broiler - July 18

Rating: C-

We were seated pretty much right away, but the table had not been wiped before we sat down and the host put my menu on top of some syrup. I asked him to wipe the table and he got a towel immediately and wiped the table and my menu.

Our server seamed nice enough, but we soon learned that she was overwhelmed; she had at least 5 tables. The server that delivered our meals was a little rude. He set the plates down and asked if we needed anything else and I mentioned that I had ordered milk to be served with the meal. He said that our server probably had that and walked away. His demeanor was surly and almost beligerant.

William ordered the Iron Lake omelet, which has ham and wild rice in it, served with hash browns and toast. The hash browns were only cooked on one side. While this is the current trend, it runs the risk of being cold/undercooked in the middle, which was the case today. The omelet was overcooked on the bottom and all the toast was burnt.

I ordered the french toast with bacon. Our server asked if I wanted the cinnamon roll french toast or the regular, then proceded to explain what the cinnamon roll french toast was. I ordered the regular, but ended up wishing I had ordered the other. The slices of bread were over an inch thick, and were not dipped in the batter long enough to soak into the middle. They were also barely warm, so when I saw our server, I asked her to heat them up. When I got them back, it was obvious they had been microwaved and the crust of the bread was very tough and rubbery. William finished my french toast (I was too full) and it took him almost 30 seconds just to cut through the bread with his knife.

Our server did bring my milk right after the food was delivered and she did check back after my reheat came back. She asked if it was better and when I told her that it was hotter, she walked away. She never apologized for the food being cold or delved further to see how it was other than the temperature. William had to wait for quite a while for a refill on his soda and after our plates had been cleared, we waited for more than 10 minutes for our check.

What a disappointment! Our last visit here was great and this one was was pretty bad. We'll have to wait a while before we go back.

Background information on your reviewers:

Maryanne was in the restaurant industry for 14 years, including one year as a manager for Chili's Grill and Bar. She has experience in fast food, family chain restaurants (with and without alcohol) and fine dining. She has a Hospitality and Tourism Management degree which gives her an understanding of the service industry including travel, hotel, gaming, food and beverage, and entertainment. She is also an actress with some years experience doing short and feature films, online episodic shows, student films, film projects and contests which include both paid and voluntary roles.

William has none of that experience, but instead has experience eating with and entertaining groups of different sizes in a variety of venues in different areas of the Country. That and a knowledge of how things 'should' work in the entertainment and service worlds. He forms his own opinions from that mix of knowledge using a good dose of common sense and a perception of what he feels people expect from dining out at various venues, seeing movies and such.

Our rating system is just a guide, and no rating system is 100% perfect. We are just married couples, friends and relatives that enjoy movies, eating out and other entertainment in the Twin Cities area, and generally we find that people agree with our assessments of different venues, so we offer this bit of common-man insight to everyone. We feel that we're all pretty average people, and we expect what we think any average person would when we spend money to go places and do things, and we have the same reactions when things go right or wrong as most anyone else would. We offer this blog and our experiences to people so they can know or formulate a better opinion as to whether they might want to spend their money or not at these same places or for the same things.

We know that lots of people don't follow reviews and critics and such because they are paid to do what they do, and they generally spend a lot of time qualifying what they say so that you could make the review mean more than it really does. We are all straight-forward and upfront people, and we're not paid, reimbursed or in some other way compensated for these reviews. Maybe it's just us, but we think that lends us more credibility since we're just doing it because we can and we like to, not because we get paid for doing it.

That said, you have to keep in mind that we aren't pro's or anything, so you'll get a no-nonsense perspective from us. We may seem harsh at times, but you need to remember that in some cases we'd spend a lot of money just to come away with a poor review. It hurts having to spend money on something and have nothing good to show for it, and we feel that other people would have the same reaction we would in cases like that, and our reviews reflect that fact. Along that same line, we like spending a little money and getting more value from it. Our reviews and descriptions should also show that, and that's what we're trying to get across to other people as well.

Again, we aren't compensated for this in any fashion, we just do it because we can, we want to, and to maybe help some other people out in the process.

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Sunday, July 18, 2010

St Claire Broiler - July 18

Background information on your reviewers: