Service is really great, Ambiance is good. My wife and I love the vibe... here comes the but... the…read morefood, after giving the place a half dozen tries, just hasn't been good. I could describe every experience with this restaurant but I'll leave you with the previous few.
And I know what you're thinking, if the food was so bad, why do you keep going back? Well, hope and optimism. Rooting for Roots! We want the local place to succeed, but we've come to the conclusion that what they really need in order to improve, is honest feedback.
But part of me hopes that it changes nothing. And here's why... my wife and I love this place. But in a weird way... allow me to explain, imagine the place as a Saturday Night Live sketch where the staff, the menu and ambiance are unapologetically pretentious, but the food doesn't deliver on any level. It's pure entertainment. We have dinner and an inside joke.
First of all, for the price, you naturally expect elevated dishes and excellent service. We both had a cocktail, a glass of wine with dinner, an appetizer, entrees, salad and desert. Around $250 with tip. Pricey, but reasonable if the place delivers.
On one visit we had the duck, which was served undercooked and when we mentioned it to the waiter, she scoffed, "that's the way it's supposed to be served." So feeling duly chastised for our ignorance, we shut up and ate the duck. I don't know the organism involved, but my wife and I were up all night vying for access to the bathroom. Enough said. Things were dicey, but no trips to the hospital.
Six months or so had passed and finally, last night we rolled the dice and tried Roots again. My wife said her dinner was fine. She had stuffed salmon, adequate, but not great. For me, It was between the steak and the pork belly. Now I had the steak before once and it was... well it was definitely a steak. I'm not going to say much about it except for this... if you like the taste of a good glass of water, order the steak. So having experienced the steak already, I ordered the pork belly, which is an extremely tasty and forgiving cut of meat in my experience. But somehow at Roots, they figured out how to prepare it poorly. Yikes! It was dry as a bone, but only in the places where it wasn't tough as shoe leather. It had to have sounded like a rock when it hit the plate. The naturally rich flavor was cooked completely out of it, and any surviving seasonings were successfully burned away during the cremation process. I was starving so I made a valiant effort at finishing it, but it took several glasses of water and an inordinate amount of chewing. My wife laughed at me the whole time. I offered her a bite but she demurred, quipping that it had been a long week and she simply didn't have the energy. It was served with a "slaw" that consisted primarily of a plain sliced onion and slices of flavorless apple devoid of seasoning or dressing. I honestly don't know how this dish made it out of the kitchen, let alone a chef's imagination.
It has become a quest for my wife and me. Like the holy grail of dining experiences, only a few minutes from our home. Ever the optimists, we will just keep trying Roots again every six months or so and hope for better on each trip... or not. If you're looking for a unique dining experience, please try Roots. We want them to succeed so we can keep coming back and having these comically terrible experiences.
If pretentious irony is your spirit animal, please try roots. And Roots, please keep trying. We will keep spending $250 bucks for "dinner" and a show.
PS, to add to your experience, ask for a booth when you arrive for your reservation, they will look you up and down and politely say "no" as they walk you past 4 empty booths. No explanation...
