The aesthetic of this restaurant is very cool. Beyond that things went downhill pretty quickly.
We walked in and were able to get seated no problem, however, we were seated downstairs, which is pretty tight in space and in a small corner they had a jazz band playing. The tables are pretty much right on top of the band because the space is so small given the bar. We could barely hear each other and eventually asked if there were seating upstairs because we kept seeing customers come up and down the staircase. The host said yes and was able to get us moved upstairs, which created a much better experience now that we could actually talk to each other.
Our waiter was very knowledgeable and kindly. We ordered some alcoholic beverages, which were good and ordered some appetizers which were good as well.
Here is where the two stars comes into play. One of their specials was a Dijon mustard sauce with mushrooms over chicken and rice. When the waiter had told us a specials, I thought I had heard him say it was sautéed. He had told us the specials downstairs with the music playing loudly, but apparently the chicken was prepared as grilled. (just to give context, grilled chicken or the taste of charcoal makes me nauseous.)
When the dinner arrived, and I realized it was grilled, I spoke to the waiter and had said I'm very sorry but I thought you had said this was sautéed and he even said he may have made that mistake since he said it earlier to another table and that he would bring the meal down to the kitchen and have them fix the order with a sautéed chicken.
About 20 minutes later after my friends had already finished their meals the chicken dinner was brought back to me. I noticed that the chicken was incredibly small maybe the size of half of my palm and the rice was disheveled. The green beans were cold and there was absolutely no mushroom sauce on the chicken despite the rice having it look like it did have sauce on it at one point.
At this point, I was just hungry and said you know what it is what it is I did ask the waiter if I could please get the Dijon mustard sauce and he said "oh it's not on the chicken?" and I showed him the plate and he looked at the size of the chicken and seemed concerned like he also noticed that something was off.
When he left, I went to cut up the chicken to eat and noticed a blackened part underneath, so I flipped the chicken over and surprise surprise. It was the same piece of chicken the chef had literally ripped the top half of the grilled chicken off, flipped it over, and sent it back out to me.
I have never had anything like this happen to me in my life. I was so disgusted.
I called the waiter over and he seemed horrified by what the chef had done. Again, he was very nice but to be fair It is your job as a waiter to check the dish before bringing it to the customer. I can't blame him for the unprofessionalism of that kitchen, but he should have looked at that and said this dish doesn't look right before serving it to me.
He immediately grabbed the dish said I'm going into the kitchen to find out what just happened and asked if there was something else he could make and I said at this point, I don't trust anything that's going to come out of the kitchen. He was extremely apologetic told me he completely understood and he would also feel the same way.
Eventually, an older woman came to the table. I believe it's the manager. She was very kind but began making excuses for the kitchen saying that was a new chef and they're trying new recipes and that this was all a new thing. Instead of just saying, I'm horrified that the chef did not make you a new meal and he will be talked to about our standards and thoroughly retrained. While I appreciated her apology It felt very flat given her list of excuses of why a chef at a restaurant charging $35 a meal would take a meal cooked incorrectly and tear half the meat apart and reserve it to a customer.
They obviously took the meal off the check which is to be expected and is genuinely the bare minimum. She took off an iced tea, which was three dollars and my soup which was $10.
I left hungry and disappointed.
If you choose to frequent this restaurant and you see a band playing downstairs, I would automatically ask for the upstairs seating.
If there is something made wrong with your meal expressed to your waiter that you would like it redone correctly and you're expecting an actual new meal if it cannot be. read more