Having visited Elliott's Table for some wine and appetizers a few weeks back, it was worthy of a dinner visit. We were going with friends who were going to make reservations but was under the impression they didn't take reservations, so we just walked into Elliott's table last Friday night for dinner. As we walked in the guy who "didn't greet us at the door" stood back about 10 feet and just looked at us like we were aliens. Finally, I spoke up and said, "Good evening, how are you tonight. We like a table for 4 for dinner", he finally mustered up some words and said, "Do you have reservations?" Apparently, he's not a veteran, or he would have know that if I had reservations for the evening I would have said, "Good evening, we have reservations for 4 at 8:00pm for the XXX party." He stood staring for 10 seconds and then said "we don't have any tables". I saw one table inside but after hearing they do take reservations, I figured it was reserved; which I can appreciate. I looked on the patio at 4 tables with only one occupied and asked if we could get a table outside. He said, "sure, but do you want a table inside?" By now I'm total confused but took the outside table as it was much quieter than the dining room (thank goodness it wasn't August).
Our server turned out to be the same confused fellow that "didn't greet us at the door." He came over and asked if we'd like anything to drink, so we asked for the wine list. After selecting a wine, we had to flag him down to place the order. A few minutes later he came back with the wine, didn't bother to present the wine, show the label, or verify the wine delivered was what we ordered. Extremely unprofessional, but at this point we decided service wasn't his strong suit. When the wine was "delivery" we ordered an appetizer and said we'd wait to order our entrees. After pouring the wine (a rose') and not offering a wine bucket, he said, "I'll go put it in the cooler to keep it cold." Since the tables for four were VERY small, we appreciated him not leaving it on the table. Since we were outside and he seemed to be serving tables both inside and out, we had to flagged him down for more wine.
For the appetizer and salads... We order the "Pork Belly" appetizer which we had before and was quite good. However, the presentation was unimpressive. The fried dices of pork belly were put on plate with some sauce beneath it; didn't have much eye appeal. The wives ordered salads for dinner while the guys ordered entrees. The Roasted Beet Salad - Goat Cheese, Roasted Purple & Golden Beets, Balsamic, Prosciutto, Pecans, was fairly bland and missing a couple of ingredients. Only beets were golden beets, couldn't find the goat cheese, and I think the rolled up thing in the photograph is the one piece of prosciutto. On a pile of arugula with what appeared to be a balsamic sauce of sorts, again, no cheese. A sore disappointment for $13. The Steak salad was vast improvement, nicely done medium rare slices of Tri Tip, accompanied by garden variety of greens.
For the mains... My buddy and opted for entrées, he went with the Fried Chicken, and I'd read the reviews about Shrimp and Grits being their signature dish, so I order this to let everyone get a sampling. The Fried Chicken was, well, fried chicken, nothing remarkable about the chicken; it did have a nice crust with good flavor, best part of the dish was the presentation. For all the Beet Salad and Pork Belly lacked in presentation the Fried Chicken made up for being served on a plank with the chicken placed on a pile of french fries, some asparagus on one side, and a "smear" of what I believe was aioli on the other side. The signature dish of Shrimp and Grits looked like sloppy bowl of mess, VERY untypical of traditional shrimp and grits dishes. The grits were more of a soup with sauce mixed in with the grits to form a slurry. Five head-on shrimp were mingled in the slush with the body shell removed and the small shell on the tail intact. Bits of Taso added it's smoky and spicy flavor to dish; but I couldn't identify the Andouilee sausage unless it was in tiny pieces. While heads provide another dimension of flavor, they make eating them a MESS; trying to pull the head and small tail off with a knife and fork is job for a surgeon. So give up and use your hands, yes, you will have a big mess on your hands, literally. I enjoyed the flavors, but the dish was more suited for roadside crawfish boil that a nice restaurant. Glad I tried it, wouldn't order it again.
During the meal our server was seen spottily along the way. We had bit of trouble getting his attention to order a second bottle of wine. Once again, the same service on the wine as the first. Another guy stop by the table very briefly and asked if everything was "OK", could have been Elliott or the manage, but he didn't introduce himself.
Elliott's Table definitely needs some refinement, but they do have promise. read more