My reviews consistently touch on two things, food and service. Food usually trumps service on the star level with the exception of this particular review....
We were sat down at 7:15 after a short 10-15min wait in the lounge area(it was a Saturday night in the hopping city of Front Royal) which was pretty quickly in my opinion. Waiter/Host was friendly and accommodating while we were waiting in the lobby area.
When we were seated, we were approached by what my buddy Russell described as a "handsome gentleman", who was friendly and quickly took our drink, appetizer, as well as dinner order at that time(7:15ish). We didn't receive our drinks right away as it appeared the staff was a little overwhelmed. In their defense, it seemed busy for a smaller restaurant. I mean, basically capacity on what I would imagine to be their busiest night of the week.....
It was literally close to 15 min before we received beverages, and nearly and hour before appetizers arrived! We had just finished a 9.2 mile hike, and even at this point had not complained once even though we were famished.
When the appetizers came, they were huge portions, and pretty delicious. I ordered the spicy bulgogi tacos, and they were a bit dry, but very flavorful. The tortillas were cold, so not as pliable as a soft taco should be. The rest of the appetizers, although I did not partake of them, looked good and very large.
Thank God they were large, because we wouldn't see our dinners for another full hour and fifteen min or so. At about the one hour, I kindly but obviously frustratingly asked when our entrees would arrive. The waiter basically shrugged us off stating he was sorry but they had a "seven top" and it was slowing service. He also mentioned they only had one cook. I personally felt like I wasn't valued as a "three top". I don't even think we heard an apology at that point, but I can't be sure....When the runner brought our food he basically very apoplectic, and used the words "I know this sucked bad". This made me feel a little better.
Food was OK, but not spectacular. I was so hungry, it may not have actually been OK, but for review purposes, everything was cooked, and the meal was hot when it hit the table. We scarfed everything down in about 10 min.
We wanted to order dessert, but it was way too risky as we wanted to get to bed by midnight.
We finally left the restaurant at 9:50PM. Close to three hours later.
I would try this place again on another night, as I think it has potential for a good review, but not today.
PS. No discounts were offered, and we tipped a full 20%. read more