I'll preface and say I'm a home cook and usually don't ever eat out as I prefer my cooking to most restaurants. I personally don't like chain restaurants, but was with some friends who suggested, so I gave it a try but set low expectations for the food.
That being said, I was still incredibly underwhelmed with the experience here. There were no waters brought to the table (Isn't that a standard? If not, it should be). I had also thought the restaurant served bread/oil or butter but we never received anything (and I noticed that bread should have been served per the reviews in Yelp). Calamari appetizer came out okay; I've definitely had better, but no complaints. I got the scallops entree and it was very disappointing. The scallops were not seared on the outside, so everything was rather mushy as there was also a sauce and risotto -- no contrasting textures, which was much needed. The thing that blew my mind about the dish was the the haricots vert (green beans) were completely undercooked. I like my stuff al dente, but this was way beyond. Who undercooks green beans these days? Either way, I wasn't going to say anything about my meal as I wasn't expecting to be blown out of the water with it.
My other friend said her salmon dish was pretty good. My other friend, however, ordered the surf and turf and this is where things really hit the fan. His steak was undercooked, so he commented to a man on staff, who immediate took his plate and walked away from him without any question. He had an entire plate of food besides the steak -- a lobster and sides that he was hungry and ready to eat, but now his plate was gone. Our waitress came by and my friend explained his frustration and at this point we realized that there seemed to be a disconnect on the protocol here. She mentioned they were cooking the steak. My friend asked to address the entire plate issue and had to suggest getting an entirely new meal. The waitress went back with that request. Seems like a lack of training of the protocol for how to handle scenarios when food is undercooked. We had to wait a long while for that food to come out again and his girlfriend and I had long finished our meals. My friend was brought out a new plate, which he proceeded to cut into his steak (which was supposed to be medium rare) and still find completely fatty and uncooked parts, but he let it go. He then got to the lobster which he cut into, took a bite and had to spit it out as the lobster was raw. It was pretty disgusting when you get a raw piece of seafood in your mouth you weren't expecting and just also from a sanitary/health reason it sparks concern. Again he had to send the plate back and ask for the meal to be done indefinitely. We all just wanted to get out of there at that time.
The manager came out and compensated my friend's meal, one drink, and then offered three free entree vouchers (I don't think any of us will be back though).
Now I know everyone has bad nights and maybe this was one of them. Also, the deep house / pop music that was playing overhead took away from the ambiance of the restaurant.
I'll leave these as my final overall comments.
1. Waitstaff need better training on restaurant protocol; I didn't feel like there was a true sense of concern for the matter; things felt very apathetic and maybe this had to do with them not knowing exactly how to react and what to do
2. Chef / Cooks need better training on how to cook; or hire new people. read more