CJ goes negative! 1 1/2 stars for Rumor's ...

[Robin Garr]

You asked for it. Now you have it! A 1 1'2-star review in the CJ! (Interesting that they're putting the review online a day before print ... trying to get into the club with LouisvilleHotBytes​ and LEO Weekly​?

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/en ... /29857221/

LOL Like many others here I've complained about her scoring many restaurants higher than they deserve but in this case I think she went too low! Granted, Rumors isn't a fancy place nor does it have gourmet food on its menu but it is certainly a restaurant that provides reasonably priced food that many people obviously enjoy. Just go by any evening and look at the crowd in the parking lot to confirm how many people enjoy it.

We hadn't been in quite a while even though it's quite close to our home but last week one evening we were in the mood for peel and eat shrimp and that's the first place we thought of that serve them out our way. We arrived about 8 PM and the restaurant was about 3/4 full with a large mix of families and younger and older groups of individuals. We were seated promptly and quite quickly greeted by a very friendly waitress. We ordered a house salad to split along with 1 pound of the warm peel and eat shrimp start with. The salad was nice crispy lettuce with cucumbers and carrots and the French dressing was quite good although nothing special. The salad was probably a little overpriced for the size of it but we really wanted a salad. The shrimp on the other hand was very good and satisfying. They were just the right temperature and served with two containers of cocktail sauce along with two containers of melted clarified butter. I did never tried butter on shrimp before and it was pretty good but I still prefer cocktail sauce. The shrimp weren't overly seasoned, she was right about that but in our opinion they were season just perfectly because you can still taste the shrimp. Matter fact we like them so much we ended up ordering a 2nd pound!

I would probably give Rumors 2 1/2 stars without a problem although based on how she has scored other restaurants I would definitely give it at least a 3 in comparison to how she has scored other restaurants that we have eaten at.

[Robin Garr]

We arrived about 8 PM and the restaurant was about 3/4 full with a large mix of families and younger and older groups of individuals.

Did you notice an older lady with a really angry face?

That review was so nasty it makes me wonder if she was instructed to toughen up. I've never been, but after looking at the menu we might head over there tonight. My wife is from Louisiana and can eat boiled shrimp all day long. The price for a dozen oysters is a selling point as well.

I like Rumors and the food and service have always been consistently good there. Shrimp and grouper are both great there

[Robin Garr]

That review was so nasty it makes me wonder if she was instructed to toughen up.

Given the CJ's apparent interest in not making potential advertisers angry, I kind of doubt that.

We go sporadically (but regularly), and always enjoy it! It's plain, simple, good food.

We usually order their specialties (oysters, roasted oysters, and wings), which she evidently ignored, and while they are nothing fancy they are done correctly, simply, and served hot (or cold, as appropriate). No fancy sauces, nothing to write home about, but also a place where if we went more often they'd likely know our names and our "standard" orders! There are no surprises - and that includes bad surprises as well as good.

My mind is blank, but she's visited similar places in the past with much better reviews; here, she goes to a seafood place, doesn't order the oysters (the "real" special of the house), and spends half of her review disparaging the Phily steak and turkey sandwiches (likely two of only a very few items on the menu that aren't seafood? It's like going to a steakhouse and complaining about the pasta (oops - she did that too)!

The comments on the CJ website are almost all negative. Most saying she did not have the seafood that Rumors is known for. A couple even dissed her ability to write a review. I realize that the comments section is "where intelligence and common sense go to die", but for each person that took the time to write, there are many more that think the same thing. I have totally lost any interest in her opinion, which IMHO seems to be based on the decor and her friendships over the food.

PS - what does not having a "chef" have to do with anything. Lots of casual places don't and do fine. I love my chef friends, but even some of them refer to themselves as cooks.

[Robin Garr]

The comments on the CJ website

Sorry, I couldn't resist, but as you point out yourself, "There Be Dragons Here."

My mind is blank, but she's visited similar places in the past with much better reviews; here, she goes to a seafood place, doesn't order the oysters

But she did order three seafood items. I've never heard of the place (got to get out of the Highlands more!), but if I stumbled across it and looked over the 80 or so menu items, I would expect them to be of roughly equal quality. I doubt that the menu labels which foods are good, which are not.

One comment on the CJ site struck me: "Only an idiot would order a steak or turkey cheesesteak." Well then, why are they on the menu? It's a fair question.

One comment on the CJ site struck me: "Only an idiot would order a steak or turkey cheesesteak." Well then, why are they on the menu? It's a fair question.

I think it's a very fair question. I suspect Nancy has watched her stare of "Restaurant Impossible" and was referring to needing a chef to reduce the menu down to what they do best. I think that's a totally fair statement.

My mind is blank, but she's visited similar places in the past with much better reviews; here, she goes to a seafood place, doesn't order the oysters

But she did order three seafood items. . . .

One comment on the CJ site struck me: "Only an idiot would order a steak or turkey cheesesteak." Well then, why are they on the menu? It's a fair question.

Actually, the menu devotes a lot of space to the oysters, wings, and a very few other items, implying that they are "worth the space"; the sandwiches et al are listed in a "clump" apart from these house specialties! Also, there is a section of the menu (and of the web page) describing the restaurant, which says that the owner wanted to start a place that specialized in fresh shellfish and good wings. Had she read either, she might have ordered things other than cheesesteaks and non-shellfish items (she did order one shrimp, admittedly). It just bothers many that the place tells you to order wings and shellfish, and she judges it by other items!

And, there are people who don't like anything that came into contact with water, so the cheesesteaks can be held in a freezer "just in case." The better question is, since she ordered one is she an idiot?

For whatever it's worth, when we go to a place that's obviously a seafood (or whatever) restaurant, we either order seafood or - if we're in doubt - ask the wait staff what the specialty of the kitchen is! This isn't a Corbett's/whatever, where everything is expected to be good; it's a limited neighborhood bar with tv's and great oysters and wings!

One comment on the CJ site struck me: "Only an idiot would order a steak or turkey cheesesteak." Well then, why are they on the menu? It's a fair question.

That statement was made by an individual and expressed that individuals opinion. Obviously there are people that like those sandwiches or else they would have been taken off the menu a long time ago. Just because someone doesn't like something on the menu doesn't mean that somebody else doesn't like it.

Right, but the point made here and on CJ is that the review was perhaps invalid because she ordered the "wrong" foods at this particular establishment. I disagreed and think that anything on the menu ought to be fair game.

Now one could argue that, for example, if one reviews Coal's, it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to skip the pizza and order apps and salads. That's fair. However, I think that the same level of quality ought to be expected.

To Andrew's point, the online menu has a full second page of the "Sand"wiches, so I don't see them being clumped at the end, but well displayed. The online menu could be formatted differently, though.

To Andrew's point, the online menu has a full second page of the "Sand"wiches, so I don't see them being clumped at the end, but well displayed. The online menu could be formatted differently, though.

You may be right . . . I'm going by memory here, which may automatically disqualify my opinions!

When you look up the restaurant on-line (and I think on the back of the restaurant menu?) you will find:

"I embarked on a search for a place that had Buffalo style chicken wings and fresh shellfish. Having to travel out of state to encounter such foods, I decided to open a place in Louisville where other people of this caliber could gather and quench their thirst for the finer things in life!"

Your analogy to reviewing Coals without ordering pizza is a good one, but - while everything should be the same quality in an ideal world - when the owner specifically says he's pushing Buffalo wings and shellfish I just wouldn't order other things, or at least wouldn't base a review on them!