Sad, sad, sad is how I feel writing this review and how I felt dining in for lunch on a Tuesday. The restaurant uses the kitchen at the Mt Tam Racquet Club. Their days there aren't consistent. That's a bit frustrating. I walked in today and I grabbed a menu, which did not include the specials that I received via email, and I sat at a high top. The only server helped the woman that came in before me, and then he piddled around behind the counter before coming over to me and asking if I wanted to eat. I get emails from East meet West so I know they have specials and what they're serving. I inquired about the differences between the two hamburgers. And he looked at me confused. I said I can't pull up the menu on my phone because I'm not connected to the Wi-Fi, but you have two different burgers on the online menu can you please let me know what the differences are. He went and looked it up on the computer and came back and said one has lettuce tomato onion and the other has coleslaw. I'm pretty sure the seasoning in the meat is different. I decided to go with the Pad Se Ew with chicken. And I asked for some crispy wings to go. The food was good. I enjoyed it. It was fresh. It had good flavor and here's the kicker. I would've ordered maybe three dishes to go except their to go containers are Styrofoam which one, is the most unhealthy product you can put food in especially warm food and two, Styrofoam containers are illegal in most Marin county cities. Apparently Larkspur is not one of them. I'm surprised that the chef who puts out delicious dishes would compromise the integrity of his food and put it in a petroleum-based product. So, I asked the server if all the takeout containers were Styrofoam and and he replied yes and I said I would like to cancel the chicken wings because I won't accept styrofoam for my food. I was a bit shocked when he brought the chicken wings to the table and I looked at him and I said I canceled this order. He took the dish back to the kitchen.
The server brought me the check and I gave him cash, because I like to pay cash to small businesses. I also like to tip cash. He didn't have change. He said he had to go get some and I said would it be more convenient to pay with a card and he said yes. So I handed him my card. He ran it. He asked if I wanted the receipt. It already printed out so I said yes and I said where do I put the tip and he goes oh, you need to put the tip on the original copy that I gave you. Apparently at the Mt Tam racket club you have to tip before they run your credit card because after they run it you can't add a tip.
If East meet West can find a location where they're open at least five days a week, can find servers that actually know what they're doing and don't offer toxic takeout containers, this restaurant would be a fine addition to Marin. read more