So I woke up this morning and said to my girl, "Let's find a golf course that has a clubhouse that…read morecontains a bar but the bar has a dining room because the owners have aspirations to offer fine dining. And let's order two of the most challenging breakfast dishes and watch the cooking staff fall all over themselves getting it wrong."
So we did.
The location of the restaurant is not obvious from the road. There is no sign or branding that will easily catch your eye as you drive by. But we know the Gull Lake area well and we knew it was in the clubhouse so we knew where to look. The owners were having the clubhouse reroofed. Not a huge problem - we figured the roofers weren't working on a Saturday so we wouldn't be troubled by the sounds of nail guns - except the roofers were using all of the handicapped parking spaces for storage of the new roofing materials and dumping of the old roof from demolition.
The name of the restaurant was on the glass doors to the main entrance. The dining room is on the left, across from the bathrooms and the golf shop. The dining room appears to be one half of a banquet hall - a sign at the door says the building capacity is 300 - so perhaps the owners are looking to host weddings or high school proms as well. A very nice wooden partition separated the room into two halves. There was a square bar in the northeast corner with about ten stools, and the remainder of the room had tables of varying sizes (to seat from 2 to 8). The kitchen doors were on the north side, and to the east were windows overlooking the golf course. There were maybe 5 TVs scattered about playing a rerun of '10 version of "Clash of the Titans" (the one with the Gemma Arterton), and the actor dialogue competed with the muzak that was also playing.
There was neither host nor a station that we could see, but just a sign directing us to sit where we pleased. We were attended to as soon as we chose our table and sat down. We ordered Eggs Benedict & the Corned Beef Hash. The restaurant calls them in the breakfast menu: "Classic Eggs Benedict" ($11) & "Smoked Corned Beef Hash and Eggs" ($11).
As many fine dining establishments do, the menu lists the components of each dish. The "Classic Eggs Benedict" is described as "applewood smoked ham, hollandaise sauce, toasted English muffin & hashbrown casserole." Everything was brought to the table lukewarm. The eggs were properly soft. The ham tasted less smoked than just ham. The hollandaise sauce was bland. But my girl saved her outrage for what was called "hashbrown casserole." It was nothing more than cheesy hash browns. She said, "Imagine macaroni and cheese and that instead of macaroni someone puts in hash browns. No onions, no peppers, no cubes of ham or bacon, no spices, no nothing. Just hash browns mixed with what looks and tastes like melted Velveeta cheese product." And, later, "These aren't even hash browns. Hash browns are pan fried. These are just riced potatoes."
The Smoked Corned Beef Hash & Eggs is described as "Two eggs cooked your way with smoked corned beef brisket, shredded potatoes, green peppers, onions & toast." I ordered my eggs poached. The eggs arrived in a small glass bowl (the size of a small ramekin) sitting in a pool of water. The corned beef had a nice smoked flavor, and there were plenty of onions and green peppers, but the entire thing was mixed with the restaurant's hashbrown casserole (aka cheesy potatoes). Corned beef hash mixed with Velveeta? Edible, but weird. And again, everything was brought to the table lukewarm.
Lots of hot, brown diner coffee though, delivered frequently by the server, Brookelynn.
Service was attentive but I should think barely acceptable. I should mention that when we are some unfamiliar restaurant, when the server brings us our food we immediately feel underneath the plates to see how warm or hot they are. (Unless the server warns us - "Watch out! Those plates are scorching! My hands are on fire!") We could immediately tell the meals were not hot - and that meant Brookelynn, who carried the dishes by hand from the kitchen to our table, knew too. And it annoys us when a server is not paying attention to something so basic.
The cheesy potatoes is an idiotic concept. To call it a "hashbrown casserole" is twice a lie for it is neither. It is included in nine of the eighteen items on the breakfast menu, so the kitchen probably has a giant sized pot of cheesy potatoes made everyday to scoop out onto plates. Repulsive.
The rest of the meal was indicative of poor execution: Plates delivered lukewarm. Bland hollandaise sauce. Poached eggs sitting in a pool of tepid water. Coffee that the best thing I can say about it was that it was hot and it was brown.
Figuratively speaking, the owners went to the first tee, took out a shiny driver, and drove the ball into every windshield in every car in the parking lot. A forgettable experience. Blah.
