Otto's for lunch

was frankly very disappointing.

DH and I had hot tea. You'd think that would be straightforward, but without a plate to put the used bags and spoons on . . .

Water was not brought to the table, nor were we offered water.

The hummus starter was actually quite good. Tasted fresh made, just the right amount of garlic, a little texture to it, tomatoes, feta and grilled pita. yum However, on a practical note, since we were sharing the app, it would have been nice to have individual plates, rather than the two of us hovering toward the communal plate.

I had the "Ahi Tuna Melt." I mistakenly thought this would be a slab of ahi tuna, grilled with cheese on focaccia. No, it was tuna salad with a slice of cheddar cheese on focaccia. However, it was so greasy on the outside that my hands glistened after picking it up. It was OK, but I could have made better myself, at home.

DH had the "Fish and Chips". He said the fish had been in the freezer way too long. Although he hated the fries, I thought they were acceptable. In fairness he likes the big soft steak fries "Rover style" and I like crispy fries. However, they were also very, very greasy.

For dessert we each chose the "Chocolate Ganache". I, thinking it was a cake, was surprised to see a round dessert on my plate, looking quite non-chocolately on the outside. On cutting into it, first it was frozen, and the inside was whipped chocolate, so that the chocolate itself was light, light chocolate. The dessert was also supposed to have raspberry powder on it, and that's one of the reasons I ordered it. There was none to be found. Seriously if that was house-made, I will publicly stand corrected, but it tasted and looked pretty pre-fab to me. Oh, and we had to ask for forks to eat it with.

Bill was nearly $47 and thankfully I had a $25 Restaurant.com gift cert. However, with the mandatory 20% tip, my bill was still nearly $30 after the coupon.

We won't try that again.

It's been a decade ago since I used to go to Otto's a couple of times per week. Adam Seger was managing the food service at the hotel then, and the service and food was excellent. I'm truly sorry that it has slipped so far. Used to be one of my favorite places when my office was downtown.

I almost laughed when I read Leah's description of the chocolate ganache. I went to the Seelbach Bar for dinner recently with a friend for the first time and had a similar experience. I wasn't going to say anything about it since I couldn't quite believe how bad it was... but I might as well share my experience in this thread since Otto's and Seelbach Bar are essentially the same (same menu, same kitchen, different dining area).

As we walked in, the server asked us what we wanted. I wasn't quite sure how to respond so i said we'd like to have dinner. As soon as we sat down at a table she again asked what we'd like (she was still holding the menus). So I said I'd like to see the menu. She seemed put out, but handed us the menus and stalked off. I was mildly annoyed at this point, but hoped the food would make up for the service.

We were trying to decide between the fried green tomatoes ($6) and the chips with chorizo, salsa, & queso ($6) as an appetizer so we asked her opinion when she returned. She said the chips were much better than the tomatoes so we went with her suggestion. We also ordered the tomato basil soup ($5). I remembered the post about Otto's claiming to have created the best burger in town so I ordered one with bacon, cheddar, and carmelized onions ($6.50). I asked for it to be cooked medium, with a side of the beer-battered fries ($2). My friend is vegetarian so her only options were a veggie sandwich ($8) or pasta ($12) - she chose the pasta. We also ordered the chocolate ganache ($6) for desert.

Fifteen minutes later, a small basket of multicolored store-bought chips came out with some concession-stand orange nacho cheese sauce and a few tablespoons of a chunky salsa. I was mostly interested in trying the chorizo, but I didn't see any. I dug around in the nacho cheese sauce to see if maybe there was some chorizo in it, but none to be found. I asked the server if they forgot the chorizo and she said it doesn't come with chorizo. I insisted that the menu said it did and she responded that they changed the menu a few months ago and it would be too expensive to print new menus (black type on white 8.5x11 paper). I asked if it would be possible for us to have the fried green tomatoes instead since this item wasn't what we expected. She sighed and said that I should have told her before. I kept my mouth shut, but thought, "SHE should have told us the chips didn't come with chorizo before we ordered!". She whisked away the chips and returned 10 minutes later with the soup and fried green tomatoes - 5 tiny slices, sitting in a pool of oil served with a small side of orange dipping sauce. (that's either $1.20 per tomato slice with free grease and orange sauce or maybe $1 per slice and $1 for the orange sauce with free grease?) We set the tomato slices on the edge of the plate to try to drain some of the oil off, but weren't very successful (we would have tried to soak the oil up with paper napkins if we had been provided with some). The tomatoes were tasteless and so oily that the batter slid right off of them when we tried to pick them up. The soup wasn't bad, but not very flavorful - it tasted like any canned tomato soup.

Then came the entrees. My burger was very well-done (if it were any more well-done, it would have been a charcoal briquette) and missing the carmelized onions. The cheddar cheese had melted completely off of the burger (I'm guessing they put the cheese on the patty and stuck it under a broiler too long). However, I was provided with my very own miniature ketchup, Grey Poupon (only the finest for Seelbach customers), and mayonnaise containers. The beer-battered fries were soggy and limp. I couldn't taste any beer-batter. However, the bacon on my burger was excellent - thick, lean-cut, perfectly crisp and not greasy. The two small strips were the highlight of my meal. When my friend's pasta dish arrived, she asked me if they might have accidentally given her a child's portion. It was a small bowl of noodles. We couldn't see any sauce, but did count 2 cherry tomatoes, 3 black olives, and 1 mushroom. She said it was as bland as it looked and then looked around furtively to see if anyone was watching before stealing my miniature ketchup and trying to pour it on the pasta to give it some flavor. Unfortunately, the miniature ketchup bottle only holds about 2 tablespoons and I had already used most of it on my burger and fries. It was so bad, it was almost comical.... but at least we had our chocolate ganache to look forward to. The server never came back to refill our drinks or check on us until she came to clear the plates.

I had never had ganache before, but the description in the menu sounded wonderful and my friend (who has a culinary background) explained to me how a ganache is made while we waited. It came out looking nothing like the description - it was about the size of a large chocolate truffle (smaller than a Reese's peanut butter cup), light brown frosty color and frozen solid. We couldn't cut it with a fork nor bite through it. We finally went at it with a knife, praying that when (if) the knife cut through it, it wouldn't go flying off the plate and hit someone. We managed to cut it without putting out an eye, but there was a very loud "CLACK!" each time the knife went through it and hit the plate - loud enough that everyone in the place looked at us each time we tried to cut a piece off.

We finally gave up and asked for the check. I noticed we were charged for the non-existent carmelized onions, but at least we weren't charged for the chips, chorizo, salsa & queso. Our total came to just over $45 and we were only too happy to leave.

Two days later, I was out late and needed some food in a hurry so my options were limited. Wendy's drive-thru fit the bill. The cashier asked if I'd like to try their new double cheeseburger deluxe combo for $2.99. I said sure and 3 minutes and $3.17 later, I was on my way. The burger was freshly made and quite tasty while the fries were hot and crisp, not at all greasy... and the only thing I could think of was how much better this fast-food chain drive-thru dinner was than my fancy dinner at the Seelbach Bar.

Oh, and I've got a $25 Restaurant.com gift certificate to Otto's that I don't think I'll be using - first one to pm me can have it!