I was unfortunately very disappointed with Locke's. Not because the food is terrible. It's better than average actually--or at least, it has potential to be great. More problematic is the fact that they seem to pay zero attention to the experience of the customer choosing, ordering, and then eating a meal here. Put simply: They do food okay, but they are impressively, outstandingly bad at hospitality.
I've been to Locke's twice. The first time I had a decent but definitely not amazing chicken lentil soup with a very dry (read: old) slice of sourdough bread that I wished I'd not had, followed by a good but also not amazing cookie. The second time I had the much-raved-about-on-Yelp chicken pot pie, the also-much-raved-about-on-Yelp bacon cheddar biscuits, and an oreo brownie. The chicken pot pie was very disappointing: The sauce split upon heating, which made it look curdled, which was gross, and the vegetables were of dramatically different sizes, some of them in huge chunks that made for quite unpleasant eating. The bacon cheddar biscuit was flavorful but very dry and crumbly, rather than moist and tender. The oreo brownie was okay, but the proportion of oreo topping to brownie was quite off, and it was so tall that it was difficult to eat.
Worst of all, this place does not list its prices. You have to ask for them. I asked why, and they said it's because they change often. When that's the case, it's customary to simply write the menu on a chalkboard rather than print it so that it can be changed frequently. In fact, their menu is already on a chalkboard--they still choose not to write the prices. If I were a little more cynical, I'd suspect dishonesty there. I'm sure some customers do. In any case, it definitely makes for awkward ordering, given most Americans "of a certain class" aren't comfortable asking how much things cost, as it implies they are not in fact as high-class as they like to think. I'm pretty sure that's exactly what Locke's is relying upon: You will be too shy to ask and so simply order and suffer the sticker shock.
And you WILL have sticker shock--only at the cash register, because again, there are no stickers--especially when you see how incredibly little you get for your money. I was told today that the chicken pot pie is sold by the pound (that just seems absurd) and that a "normal" piece is "the size of the spatula". I wonder if the people at Locke's know that spatulas come in many different sizes. Apparently the one they're using is about the size of a side dish. And that side dish costs $11. Curdled...
AND COLD. Because even though I asked for the pot pie to be heated so I could eat it onsite, it came out cold. And when I asked if it could be heated again, it STILL came out cold. At which point I gave up and resolved never to return here.
Because I was eating outside. In 30-degree weather. Because they would not clear the two tables inside for me to eat there. (I asked.) They were serving samples on them. To nobody. Because the store was EMPTY.
In sum:
1. They don't care if you want to know how much your meal will cost, or how awkward you'll feel asking. And maybe that's the point: If you're THAT kind of (poor) person, they don't want you feeling comfortable here...?
2. They think their stuff is so great it's worth 3x the excellent food that you can get at other restaurants out in podunk Virginia.
3. They can't be bothered to provide you with indoor seating in near-freezing weather, even though there are two tables indoors for that. (And two is not enough, and there's room for more.)
4. They can't serve a dish without curdling a sauce or get it properly hot, even when they try a second time.
So I've removed this place from my Yelp bookmarks and will never be going back. But if you really do have tons of money to burn, and you want to drive 15 or 20 miles out into the middle of nowhere for some mediocre carryout, then this place might be for you.
Finally, if I were the management, I'd start paying attention not just to my recipes, but to what the experience of eating in this place is actually like. Restaurants are not just about food, after all. Personally, I would:
1. Post my prices, ALWAYS.
2. Upsize the portions to justify the high prices--not to outrageous, disgusting, American fast-food mammoth sizes, but to something that makes more sense than an $11 side dish.
3. On a regular basis, eat my own food exactly the way I serve it to customers, so that I'd know exactly how long something needs to heat up properly, and what happens to the dish when I heat it that way.
4. Seriously think about what people driving all the way out to the back of beyond want in an eating experience, because it's NOT carryout and it's NOT outdoor eating in 30-degree weather. For God's sake, clear some room for indoor seating!
It's such a shame about this place, because there is SO much potential for excellence here... :-( read more