-Don't expect to get a return phone call - keep calling until you reach a real live person; it took me over a week to get a ""reservation"" and special menu for our Anniversary
-Do expect the staff to be more than gracious and attentive.
-Don't expect them to wash their morel mushrooms; they will be served gritty with sand in the sauce
-Do expect them to have the pheasant perfectly roasted, and the beef perfectly braised (under the sandy morel sauce.)
-Expect them to have some wonderful wines paired, but we didn't notice any Chilean, Argentinean or Australian reds on the list.... (If you're fans of the wines of these countries.)
-FYI: An Amuse' or Amuse Buche is a single bite-full of food to tempt/entertain the pallet with promises of courses to come....served at the very start of the meal. Don't expect the staff to know this. We were served an ""Amuse Moosh"" by our server after roasted pheasant prior to the braised beef course.... it consisted of a breakfast pastry sized puff pastry purse filled with pears, figs - and feta! - covered in Chinese 5 spice sauce. It would have made a lovely dessert with a different cheese.... maybe a brie or even a blue. Feta just tasted too strongly soured with the sweet syrup over the top. We thought this was our dessert..... after our courses. Pulled out the card - We'd been there for more than 3 hours..... We just thought the server had been confused. Only to our dread did we realize when she returned that we still had two more excruciating courses to sit thru.....delicious, but SOOOOOO SLOW!!!!
We knew they had already started firing our next course, so we were stuck for it, but sent word to cancel the dessert course as we HAD to go.... The server didn't say anything to us, but seemed much less friendly after that, and didn't come bustling around very much anymore. No apologies were offered for the extreme experience - it seems that is the expectation when you dine/share the evening with them. (Don't make plans!) oh - and we still paid for the dessert course we canceled....as it was part of the special Anniversary dinner we had arranged with them.
(The neighboring table had an appetizer-to share; each an entree from the menu and coffee.... they left at the same time we did - 4 hrs for the whole adventure.)
Pros: They come really close to hitting the mark
Cons: They come really close to hitting the mark....
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