Well, my wife and I decided to go to Le Garage tonight because it's a beautiful evening, and with fall starting, there won't be many more like it this year. We've been there many times in the past with some wonderful and some not-so-great dinners there!
Tonight, we arrived at a bit after 6pm, and for a Friday, the place looked pretty busy. The owner/host? Greeted us by asking if we had a reservation, to which we responded, "No". It seemed to take him a bit to decide if he would seat us, but finally did, at table 1 - the first banquet table, under the long mirror hanging above us. That's one of the reasons we like to sit at those tables, because even if your back is to the Bay/boats in the harbor, the customer facing the wall has a huge mirror to use to watch the boats (and other customers!)
So, our server asked us if we wanted water, which we did, and he or someone served the water. Then we didn't see our server for awhile, probably because he had just had a large party (10-12) seated in his section, and had other parties he was also serving.
Our server finally showed up and asked if we wanted drinks (wine, and possibly beer only), and we each ordered a drink, which once again, took a long time to be served.
Then we waited (and waited!) for our server to come and take our dinner order, which he finally did (again, it appeared to me that there were an inadequate number of servers available on a very busy Friday night!).
Are salad was served in a bowl (we were splitting a "Little Gem" salad). We both looked around the table and in the salad bowl, but could find no serving utensils to use to dish out our salad, and no one, including our server, offered to serve it, so I loaned my wife my dinner fork so she could serve herself (how much harder/how much extra time would it have taken the chef/cook staff to split the salad in two salad plates? Service? What service? And the lettuce consisted of full lettuce leave, instead of those leaves being cut into smaller bite-sized pieces by kitchen staff before serving the salad! And for $16, the profit margin was stratospheric!
My wife always want to go to LeGarage for their Duck Confit, which up until tonight, were mostly really good, well prepared, falling off the bone good! Tonight, another staff person saw my wife having great difficulty cutting the meat from the duck leg bone, and was kind enough to provide her with a very sharp steak knife, which she then used, but still had a great amount of difficulty getting the meat off the bone. And although she didnt say anything, I could see that the meat was very dry, almost as if the leg had been cooked days earlier, re-heated multiple times, and put back in the fridge! Mall that for $36!
My two dishes, baked oysters (4), $20, and Tabouleh De Crevettes (4 sauted prawns) $22, were good but inadequate for me as an entre.
Then, we had to wait to get our check, because our server was wine tasting with the 4 customers next to us. Apparently they were trying to impress him with the two different bottles of wine they had brought to the restaurant.
Our server never asked if we would like desert or coffee.
Our not so great food and service at LeGarage tonight cost us $170.00!!!
To say the least, a disappointing meal at LeGarage!!! read more