Likely a "one & done" for us. We decided to try this place on a Sunday morning. Very confusing which door to use. Interestingly, the bar was clearly labeled as open at 9:30 on a Sunday morning, and it was obvious how to get into the bar, but the restaurant was a little tougher to decipher.
Nice location on the river, but the dining room with all the river views must be a banquet room. We were a little disappointed at the choice to structure the dining room in a way that most customers aren't able to enjoy the river views, but overall the restaurant appeared clean, well-lit, and with decent decor.
No dedicated host, but a server fairly quickly called out to us and asked how many, and we were able to be seated, passing a buffet on the way. We hadn't noticed any signs about the buffet, and it wasn't listed on the menu.
Our server arrived quickly, was polite, but did not seem genuine and was quite curt. We asked about the buffet and we had to drag every answer out. We asked what kinds of items were on the buffet and it was obvious she didn't know. She turned around and looked it over, talking over her shoulder at what she saw. We had to ask about pricing as well.
From there, it went downhill. We decided to order off the menu, and were glad we did. The buffet apparently was close to opening, so we had a front row seat. The workers finishing stocking the food were using their bare hands to carry all the trays. We saw them come out with a large bucket to dump more hot water under a tray, right next to other food. As the buffet opened, we saw multiple people in line eating as they went, some licking fingers, eating food off the buffet that had dropped off the utensil, etc. Thankfully the server at the end cutting prime rib WAS wearing gloves. To be fair, he also walked up and down the buffet with those gloves on and handled utensils that had been used by customers, so how clean the gloves were is still TBD.
As we continued to watch what I'll call "Health Code Bingo", we saw multiple servers carrying dirty plates, then bringing out food. Only prime rib man wore any gloves. One server even carried his order book shoved down IN the back of his pants. Yum. Prime rib man used his tongs to pick up something off the floor, and we waited with baited breath. Thankfully he took it to the kitchen and to our knowledge he didn't walk back out with those tongs.
Food? Wasn't too bad. The toast was so cool that the butter never even melted, but the flavors were decent and prices seemed appropriate.
While I can see they're making efforts, this place needs to really work on clean food handling and customer service- two things I won't sacrifice for a "just decent" meal. read more