Her perspective: C
We have gone to this diner many times for breakfast on the weekends and is one of our favorites.
However, this visit was an exception. They were busier than when we usually go, so it took a few minutes for our server to come over. She took our drink order and brought back our two Mountain Dews, asking if we were ready to order.
We were. I ordered the Buttermilk special with bacon and the eggs cooked over medium. William ordered the 2x2x2 with eggs basted and added a side of toast. We had waited for about 12-15 minutes when our server came over and asked if we had ordered and what we had ordered because she couldn't find our ticket. She tried to assure us that the kitchen probably had it almost done, she just couldn't find the ticket and wanted to check.
Our food arrived a couple of minutes later and she went back for William's side of toast. I tried the bacon and found it was cold, so I touched the eggs, which were also cold. The pancakes, however, were nice and hot. When she came back with the toast, I told her that my eggs and bacon were cold and she said that she would have them remake it.
What actually happened, though, was that they put the eggs and bacon back in a pan and reheated. I could tell it was the same bacon and the eggs were exactly the same, just with a bit more color. Not to mention that my eggs were still over easy, not over medium.
When she dropped off my reheated food, she said she would get us refills, but never did. She never checked back on the food after that either. She finally dropped off the check while I was still eating and pre-bussed the table.
She was pleasant enough, but didn't really know what she was doing. I overheard her say to another table that she was new and they were busy, but that doesn't explain her forgetting if we ordered, then the kitchen messing up my food.
We'll have to let some time pass before we try to go back to this one.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Chili's
Her perspective: D
Our visit was a couple of weeks ago, but we were so upset with this experience, that we needed some time to cool off before we wrote this review so we could maintain our objectivity.
We seated ourselves in the bar area at one of the tall tables. Our server came over quickly and asked if we wanted a drink for Happy Hour. We love the Presidente margaritas, so we ordered two of those. She tried to convince us to order a Happy Hour drink, but that's not what we wanted. She brought them over and we ordered an appetizer of Southwest Eggrolls with chipotle ranch instead of the avocado ranch. She informed us that they don't carry that anymore, but they have an ancho chili ranch. So, we decided to try that. It was actually pretty good.
When our server came to take our order, I ordered the fajitas with both chicken and beef. She asked me if I wanted it for 2 people or 1 person, and I said 1 as it was just for me. She then turned around and left to put in the order without seeing if William was going to share the fajitas with me. He had wanted to order his own entree, but she just assumed that we were going to share the fajitas for one. We were able to catch her before she put the order in, so William was able to order his entree, which was a steak.
While we were waiting for our food, we had to flag down the bartender to get another round of drinks. Once we got our food, she never checked back on us. If she had, she would have known that William's steak was quite undercooked. My fajitas were as I had expected.
We tried to tip the bartender separately for taking care of our drinks, and he wouldn't accept the money.
This is the most disappointing visit we have had to Chili's to date.
Our visit was a couple of weeks ago, but we were so upset with this experience, that we needed some time to cool off before we wrote this review so we could maintain our objectivity.
We seated ourselves in the bar area at one of the tall tables. Our server came over quickly and asked if we wanted a drink for Happy Hour. We love the Presidente margaritas, so we ordered two of those. She tried to convince us to order a Happy Hour drink, but that's not what we wanted. She brought them over and we ordered an appetizer of Southwest Eggrolls with chipotle ranch instead of the avocado ranch. She informed us that they don't carry that anymore, but they have an ancho chili ranch. So, we decided to try that. It was actually pretty good.
When our server came to take our order, I ordered the fajitas with both chicken and beef. She asked me if I wanted it for 2 people or 1 person, and I said 1 as it was just for me. She then turned around and left to put in the order without seeing if William was going to share the fajitas with me. He had wanted to order his own entree, but she just assumed that we were going to share the fajitas for one. We were able to catch her before she put the order in, so William was able to order his entree, which was a steak.
While we were waiting for our food, we had to flag down the bartender to get another round of drinks. Once we got our food, she never checked back on us. If she had, she would have known that William's steak was quite undercooked. My fajitas were as I had expected.
We tried to tip the bartender separately for taking care of our drinks, and he wouldn't accept the money.
This is the most disappointing visit we have had to Chili's to date.
Saturday, March 07, 2009
Masa Restaurant - March 5, 2009
Her perspective: C
I went to this restaurant as it was part of National Restaurant Week and I wanted to try something new. I was a little disappointed that, despite the fact that we arrived exactly on time for our reservation, we had to wait about 10 minutes for our table. When you only have an hour for lunch, that's unacceptable.
When we were seated, our server was excellent. He upsold me from a regular Coke to a Mexican Coke and was able to tell us the difference. He also explained the two special menus. He was really on the ball the entire time we were there.
The food was very good as well. I had a chicken taco with chipolte cream that was really tasty. The beef torta had way too much cilantro in it and they only offer one salad dressing. It would be nice to have a choice.
Overall, it was a good experience. I went on line to try to find nutritional information on their menu, but could not find any. So, I e-mailed them and got a response that they did not have the resources to keep nutritional information on their menu items as they change frequently, but the individual restaurants have ingredient lists. Ingredients? In other words, if I want to know the nutritional information, I have to get the ingredient list from the restaurant, figure out what the ingredients were that were in the dishes I had and in what proportions, and look up the nutritional information on each ingredient. That's ridiculous. I sent a message back saying that since they cannot provide this information, I will not be eating there any more.
It's a shame, too, because the food and drinks are actually very good. I went back the following day (before I got their e-mail response) for Happy Hour and had a very good margarita. Well, it is pretty far from work...
I went to this restaurant as it was part of National Restaurant Week and I wanted to try something new. I was a little disappointed that, despite the fact that we arrived exactly on time for our reservation, we had to wait about 10 minutes for our table. When you only have an hour for lunch, that's unacceptable.
When we were seated, our server was excellent. He upsold me from a regular Coke to a Mexican Coke and was able to tell us the difference. He also explained the two special menus. He was really on the ball the entire time we were there.
The food was very good as well. I had a chicken taco with chipolte cream that was really tasty. The beef torta had way too much cilantro in it and they only offer one salad dressing. It would be nice to have a choice.
Overall, it was a good experience. I went on line to try to find nutritional information on their menu, but could not find any. So, I e-mailed them and got a response that they did not have the resources to keep nutritional information on their menu items as they change frequently, but the individual restaurants have ingredient lists. Ingredients? In other words, if I want to know the nutritional information, I have to get the ingredient list from the restaurant, figure out what the ingredients were that were in the dishes I had and in what proportions, and look up the nutritional information on each ingredient. That's ridiculous. I sent a message back saying that since they cannot provide this information, I will not be eating there any more.
It's a shame, too, because the food and drinks are actually very good. I went back the following day (before I got their e-mail response) for Happy Hour and had a very good margarita. Well, it is pretty far from work...
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Matty B's - October 14, 2008
Her perspective: D-
We hadn't been back here in a while and wanted a good meal. We couldn't have been more wrong.
There was not another customer in the restaurant, but plenty in the bar. They were all dressed very casually in what is supposed to be a fine dining restaurant. After standing at the host stand for several minutes, we were finally greeted and seated in a booth as we had requested in our reservation.
We were not given a wine list, but asked if we wanted something from the bar. I had happened to see a wine list up front, so I ordered a glass of Riesling and William ordered a coke.
We noticed that the menu was severely limited from the last time we were there. Apparently, they have cut back the menu quite a bit. William asked about it and was told that this was the menu each day. We thought it might have been a weekday menu as we could still see other menus up front.
Our server didn't seem to want to stay when we wanted her to. We were going to order crab cakes as an appetizer, when she abruptly stated that she was going to get our bread and walked away before we could say anything.
When we were mostly ready to order, she stopped by and I ordered the appetizer and my steak. William wasn't quite ready, but instead of asking if she should give him a minute, she said that she would order the appetizer so he would have a couple of minutes to decide and left. However, even though he had set his menu down, she proceeded to cloth and set another table.
William ordered a small caesar salad with chicken and we both ordered the NY Strip steak done medium.
My wine glass had stuff stuck to the outside. I had to scrape it off twice. After I had drunk several sips, I noticed some sort of sediment at the bottom. When the server came back, I requested another glass of wine. When she brought a new one, she said that the bottle was frosted, so it was difficult to tell if there was any sort of sediment in that one. However, both glasses of wine were warm and I had to put ice in them to cool them, which made them diluted.
I was surprised when the server brought out the appetizer and William's salad at the same time. She just assumed that we wanted both courses together. The appetizer was for both of us.
The chicken on William's salad was grilled, sliced and... brown and crispy? When I spoke with the server later about it, she said that she thought they might have finished cooking it in the deep fryer. That would explain the color. The chicken was also extremely hot and they had put it on a cold salad. He also said the croutons were stale.
The crab cakes were decent, but a little overcooked and black on top.
Both steaks were undercooked. William sent his back to be cooked longer, and when it finally came back, it was charred and burnt on the outside and still medium rare to rare on the inside. Mine was medium rare, but I ate a little bit and took the rest home.
The mashed potatoes looked old, perhaps cooked, then stored, then recooked. They were very bland. The asparagus was quite overcooked and wilted besides.
William visited the rest room and stood for a full minute trying to decide between the two stalls. One of them, the seat was cracked and broken. The other was very dirty and had toilet paper all over. He finally chose to clean off the dirty seat and use that one. He was appalled at the condition, though.
They did take the salad and William's steak off the bill, but we were severely disappointed and will think twice before trying this place again.
We hadn't been back here in a while and wanted a good meal. We couldn't have been more wrong.
There was not another customer in the restaurant, but plenty in the bar. They were all dressed very casually in what is supposed to be a fine dining restaurant. After standing at the host stand for several minutes, we were finally greeted and seated in a booth as we had requested in our reservation.
We were not given a wine list, but asked if we wanted something from the bar. I had happened to see a wine list up front, so I ordered a glass of Riesling and William ordered a coke.
We noticed that the menu was severely limited from the last time we were there. Apparently, they have cut back the menu quite a bit. William asked about it and was told that this was the menu each day. We thought it might have been a weekday menu as we could still see other menus up front.
Our server didn't seem to want to stay when we wanted her to. We were going to order crab cakes as an appetizer, when she abruptly stated that she was going to get our bread and walked away before we could say anything.
When we were mostly ready to order, she stopped by and I ordered the appetizer and my steak. William wasn't quite ready, but instead of asking if she should give him a minute, she said that she would order the appetizer so he would have a couple of minutes to decide and left. However, even though he had set his menu down, she proceeded to cloth and set another table.
William ordered a small caesar salad with chicken and we both ordered the NY Strip steak done medium.
My wine glass had stuff stuck to the outside. I had to scrape it off twice. After I had drunk several sips, I noticed some sort of sediment at the bottom. When the server came back, I requested another glass of wine. When she brought a new one, she said that the bottle was frosted, so it was difficult to tell if there was any sort of sediment in that one. However, both glasses of wine were warm and I had to put ice in them to cool them, which made them diluted.
I was surprised when the server brought out the appetizer and William's salad at the same time. She just assumed that we wanted both courses together. The appetizer was for both of us.
The chicken on William's salad was grilled, sliced and... brown and crispy? When I spoke with the server later about it, she said that she thought they might have finished cooking it in the deep fryer. That would explain the color. The chicken was also extremely hot and they had put it on a cold salad. He also said the croutons were stale.
The crab cakes were decent, but a little overcooked and black on top.
Both steaks were undercooked. William sent his back to be cooked longer, and when it finally came back, it was charred and burnt on the outside and still medium rare to rare on the inside. Mine was medium rare, but I ate a little bit and took the rest home.
The mashed potatoes looked old, perhaps cooked, then stored, then recooked. They were very bland. The asparagus was quite overcooked and wilted besides.
William visited the rest room and stood for a full minute trying to decide between the two stalls. One of them, the seat was cracked and broken. The other was very dirty and had toilet paper all over. He finally chose to clean off the dirty seat and use that one. He was appalled at the condition, though.
They did take the salad and William's steak off the bill, but we were severely disappointed and will think twice before trying this place again.
Friday, August 01, 2008
TGIFriday's, Rosedale
Her perspective: B-
We decided to go to Friday's because we had a coupon for a free appetizer from a screw-up at our last visit to the Maplewood location.
This visit started out really well. We arrived after the lunch rush. The hosts were right on top of opening the door, being friendly and making us feel welcome. However, we waited quite a while before we were greeted at the table. Our server was friendly - whenever he was at our table, but that wasn't much.
We ordered Fried Mac & Cheese for an appetizer and gave him our coupon. He took the coupon and we received our appetizer several minutes later. I noticed that it looked different than when I had worked at Friday's and when we started eating, we noticed that they were passably warm on the outside, but room temperature to cold in the middle.
I ordered the Jack Daniel's pork sandwich and William ordered the Jack Daniel's Flat Iron Steak, medium. My sandwich was what I expected - no more, no less - and pretty tasty. The best part, was that William's steak was cooked perfectly. I don't remember the last time that has happened in all the restaurants we have gone to in the last few months. When the food arrived, the server asked William to cut into his steak to make sure it was cooked properly (a Friday's service standard). William took his steak knife and stabbed the steak with it so that the knife stayed up when he removed his hand from the knife. The server commented that this was a different way than he'd seen to check the temperature of a steak. He never checked back on how everything was as we were eating and we didn't see him again for a long time.
After having empty plates for quite a while, the server finally came back and took William's credit card to run through. When he came back, I noticed that he had not taken the appetizer off the bill. The server claimed that he could not redo the credit card, but I know that's not true. I'm not sure if he didn't know that the system could do that or if he was just lying to us. William asked him to give us our coupon back. We'll have to go back if we want to use it. Perhaps we need to try yet another location.
Overall, we were disappointed, but the saving grace was that perfectly cooked steak.
We decided to go to Friday's because we had a coupon for a free appetizer from a screw-up at our last visit to the Maplewood location.
This visit started out really well. We arrived after the lunch rush. The hosts were right on top of opening the door, being friendly and making us feel welcome. However, we waited quite a while before we were greeted at the table. Our server was friendly - whenever he was at our table, but that wasn't much.
We ordered Fried Mac & Cheese for an appetizer and gave him our coupon. He took the coupon and we received our appetizer several minutes later. I noticed that it looked different than when I had worked at Friday's and when we started eating, we noticed that they were passably warm on the outside, but room temperature to cold in the middle.
I ordered the Jack Daniel's pork sandwich and William ordered the Jack Daniel's Flat Iron Steak, medium. My sandwich was what I expected - no more, no less - and pretty tasty. The best part, was that William's steak was cooked perfectly. I don't remember the last time that has happened in all the restaurants we have gone to in the last few months. When the food arrived, the server asked William to cut into his steak to make sure it was cooked properly (a Friday's service standard). William took his steak knife and stabbed the steak with it so that the knife stayed up when he removed his hand from the knife. The server commented that this was a different way than he'd seen to check the temperature of a steak. He never checked back on how everything was as we were eating and we didn't see him again for a long time.
After having empty plates for quite a while, the server finally came back and took William's credit card to run through. When he came back, I noticed that he had not taken the appetizer off the bill. The server claimed that he could not redo the credit card, but I know that's not true. I'm not sure if he didn't know that the system could do that or if he was just lying to us. William asked him to give us our coupon back. We'll have to go back if we want to use it. Perhaps we need to try yet another location.
Overall, we were disappointed, but the saving grace was that perfectly cooked steak.
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