After reading the rave reviews on TripAdvisor, hubby, I and two friends decided to give it a try. We arrived at 5:30pm; since they open at 5pm we wanted to give them time to get into action, and were seated immediately. We were told by the hostess that, it being Memorial Day weekend, the chef had decided to have a hot buffet, all you can eat; no dinner menu. There would be a special dessert brought out at the end of our meals also. Well, this sounded great to us, so happily left our seats to go outside to the buffet table.
No plates; when plates arrived, the first two were greased covered, so pushed aside for cleaner plates. The selection looked good; pasta salad, cole slaw, mixed greens, sweet potatoes, roasted potatoes, roasted vegetables, corn on the cob and roasted pork; smores were wrapped inside aluminum foil. We all took a little of each item, hoping to come back for a second helping. The cook, well we assumed he was the cook, was running back and forth to the kitchen to bring out fresh plates of food.
After we got back to our table, the hostess arrived with a bottle of wine; one of our party has asked for a glass of red wine. However, he was now told that they did not sell by the glass, only the bottle; he thought nothing of it as the wine menu had a price of $12 on it, so he thought he was getting a bargain. Little did he know!
So, we began to try out the various food items and the looks upon our faces....priceless! The frowning and looks of , "What did I just put in my mouth!?!" were evident on all of us. All the hot items were cold; the mixed greens salad was dry, bland and bitter. I had chosen the orange sauce with onions to spoon over my pork, but used it to give the greens some flavor and hide the bitterness. The roasted potatoes were cold, hard and crunchy; the roasted corn was burnt, and the congealed butter could not melt on it, as the corn was also cold as, was the vegetables and sweet potato. The "smores" was a just out of the bag marshmallow (not toasted), covered in chocolate sauce and, you guessed it, cold.
A server came over with water to fill our glasses; no smile, no emotion shown at all; not even a response when we thanked her for the water. No one else came over to our table to ask, "How is your meal?", "Is everything to your liking?", "Can I get you anything else?" We tried to hold a conversation, but the acoustics inside were such that the conversations from other diners echoed around us, and we could not hear each other. Suddenly, our plates, including silverware, was taken and a bill plopped on the table; guess we were naughty and didn't deserve dessert. Our friend questioned the $55 cost of the wine, so the manager deducted $9 for our coffee drinks.
...and that is basically the only positive aspect I can tell about, the Café Latte and Espresso were wonderful! Unfortunately, we used our credit cards to pay and were forced to leave a minimum 15% tip. For what! Cold food, and poor or nonexistent service! Not for anything, but this pseudo-sophisticated restaurant didn't impress any of us; and none of us will be recommending it, except for the coffee.
Oh, and we're also wondering about food poisoning. The pasta salad and cole slaw contained mayonnaise, but the bowls were not sitting in ice. The pork and other so-called hot foods were not maintained in hot serving pans. The sweet potatoes and corn did not have serving utensils; human hands touched the foods and who knows what bacteria may have been transferred. The food was also kept uncovered, even when no one was serving themselves; gnats and flies were buzzing about. Insect eggs...yum!
How could the owner/manager have made the experience better? Instead of simply saying, "Well there's not much I can do, except give you the coffees for free", he should have comped our meals, at minimum, 50%. He could have also explained why the food was cold, uncovered and, to put it bluntly, nasty in the lack of flavor and presentation.
Comb Ridge Espresso Bistro; go for the latte and espresso; avoid the food.
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UPDATE - May 26, 2015
Re:Conversation with Owner
Basically, he is stating that we should have known the buffet was an "experiment" and that the entire staff was having an "off day". Being locals, we all could go back and try again, but what about people from other states and countries; how do they go back for a "new first impression"? They cannot. Also, the health issues; if I were to send my write up and photos to the health department, would they be so understanding?
All four of us were willing to go back and give this place another try with the regular dinner menu. However, after reading the immature and unprofessional comments directed personally at me; my husband and two friends said, "No way!". By the way, we figured out, after splitting the bill, the surly server managed to charge us for the coffees anyway read more