Four of us visited yesterday for a mid week lunch, all with high hopes after their long closure. I've been a die hard Smugglers fan since the mid 1970's, and have had a lot of special meals there. For this lunch, we ate in the old lounge area on the South side of the building.
Two in our party of four had the 8 oz prime rib, and the other two (myself included) had the beef dip. The beef dip I would rate as merely OK - the meat was described as 'thinly sliced Certified Angus Beef prime rib'. I hoped this would be a good replacement for the old Smugglers prime rib sandwich, which was a thinner cut of their standard prime rib on garlic toast with au jus - perfect for lunch. Unfortunately when the beef dip arrived the meat was dry and well done, which is a shameful thing for a quality cut of prime rib.
For the two prime rib diners, they both asked for rare prime rib, which the waiter enthusiastically agreed to. Sorry to say when their meals arrived, the prime rib was well done in both cases, much to their disappointment. When mentioned to the waiter, his new response was that all their prime rib was cooked to that level as a standard 'doneness'. Prime Rib? Well done?
Now these meals are by no means cheap. If on placing the orders with the kitchen he found that he couldn't fulfill their requests, he should have come back and asked if they wanted to order something else. Being average Canadians, we didn't send the meals back - perhaps we should have, instead of just talking about how disappointing this was.
I recall in the past that Smugglers used to slow cook all their prime rib roasts to rare, then they would put a carved slice back into the oven 'on demand' if someone in the party wanted medium or well done. Perhaps now, their ovens are timed so that the slow roasted prime rib is only taken out before their main dinner service, so our visit at lunch only had the last remaining well done or reheated meat from the day before. Just speculating here, but again, that should have been our call.
Regardless, we were all disappointed with this visit. The service was prompt and attentive, but the the prime rib is the signature dish of this restaurant and we were both misled on ordering, and then misinformed as to why the prime rib arrived dry and overcooked. It's worth noting that the meals (and the two beers that our party had) was priced at the high end of the scale.
I hope this is read by management, and I sincerely hope they can make necessary improvements. All of us have been lifetime fans and patrons of the establishment, but based on this visit will not be going back. Very sad :(
Steve S read more