by Ellen White » Tue Sep 01, 2009 1:45 pm
Tried it for lunch today. We definitely gave them the benefit of the doubt, but still, there are a lot of kinks to be worked out before their official opening.
At the hostess stand, we looked at a menu. We noticed a special sandwich, but no other sandwiches were listed. When we asked about sandwiches, it turned out that the menu we were looking at didn't have the sandwich page in it. Then, once we were seated, I was reading off some of the appetizers, but my boss didn't have those appetizers on his menu. Also, my menu listed 3 sandwich specials and his only listed one. Turned out the menu I had was the wrong menu.
Okay, no big deal.
It took a while for a server to come over, and it took a longer while for her to come back and take our order. I ordered a tuna sandwich, my boss ordered tri-color tortellini with shrimp. I had specifically asked about the mayonnaise level of the tuna, and was told that it wasn't overly creamy. We also ordered a bruschetta appetizer (hey, we had to try stuff out, didn't we??).
40 minutes after we had been seated, we still hadn't received the appetizer. My boss told the waitress (who we had to call over; she never checked on us) to just cancel the bruschetta and bring us the entrees. She said that the bruschetta was in the oven. The problem is that it shouldn't have still been in the oven, since we had ordered it 20 minutes ago. Once the bruschetta was cancelled, our entrees arrived within 5 minutes.
My boss liked his tortellini/shrimp salad. I tasted a shrimp, and it did have a nice flavor. The pasta salad I ordered as my side (instead of chips) was pretty dry. It was certainly a large side portion, but I only ate about 2 bites. The rosemary tuna salad sandwich (which I ordered on swirled rye) was good, although I was disappointed with the over-mayonnaiseness, especially since I had specifially asked about that.
The owner came over when we first arrived. He said they weren't really supposed to open until 9/25, but they had a party, and figured if they were up and running, they may as well go ahead. He thought it was a good way to get everyone trained before the actual opening. So, like I said, from what we had already heard from LHB and from what the owner said, we were patient and nice and really gave them a chance. I agree that this may be a good way to train people, with actual customers, but it seems that the people should already have some training beforehand. Our waitress just didn't seem to know what she was doing at all. She never checked on us, she didn't seem familiar with the food, etc. My boss described her as "deer in the headlights". From the looks of other diners, it didn't appear that their service was much better. In fact, the booth in front of us was comped; I don't know how long they had been there. They seemed to have a lot of servers, but they didn't really seem to know what they were doing. At one point, we looked over at the kitchen, and there were 5 servers plus the owner at the window, with food on the counter to go out, but nobody seemed to really know which food was theirs to take out. (I have never worked in a restaurant, so that's coming from a layman's point of view).
The market did have a gourmet selection, as well as some regular items, like cereal, garbage bags, etc. I looked for a price on the cereal, but didn't see one, so I can't say how in line the prices are with a regular store. I saw a lot of items in the market that I see at Paul's Fruit Market, although I'm sure there is extra gourmet stuff that Paul's doesn't have.
We went in knowing that there would be kinks that needed to be worked out. We just didn't realize there would be that many kinks. If we were regular worker-bees on a time clock, we would have had to leave. We were at the table for exactly one hour from start to finish, for a tuna sandwich and a shrimp/tortellini dish that was already prepared (we saw it in the case). That didn't count the time we took to look around the market and the time it took to walk there and back.
Still, I hope they do well, and I think we would both be willing to try it again, after they've been officially opened for a while.
, but this weekend I am splurging! Hey! Anyone wanna do an offline????? 
