Jamie B.
Yelp
I suspected this place would be a disaster when I called a couple of times this past Sunday and no one answered the phones. I checked on facebook to see if they were even open and to see if anything else was going on but nothing was posted. So, we decided to take the risk and venture out in the monsoon weather anyway. We get there, I ironically run into a friend who said there is a private event taking up the whole dining area but there is outdoor seating that is covered so the rain wont affect us. So I said goodbye to my friend and went inside by myself to see if we could be seated outside. I spoke to a lady in the main dinning hall and she said that I would need to go outside to find someone that will seat us out there. I found a male waiter who looked pretty stressed out and asked if we could get a table. He said all the tables but the one getting rained on in the corner were taken. I said, ok, we would like to wait for a table, how long? He, again, clearly stressed out, had no idea and said maybe 30 min to an hour... I knew that was false. So, I gathered my family from the front of the restaurant to the back and was going to move the table being rained on, over a bit more under the shelter.
As my family and I were about to move the table, the couple sitting next to that table said they were leaving and that we could sit there. I thanked them and we sat down.
The same male waiter came around, I told him that we found a table and he said he would be there to give us menus and take drink orders. He gave us the menu: one brunch menu and one COOLinary (which was a combo for lunch and brunch). The COOLinary on Sunday is $5 more, FYI, not the 19.99 that you see for lunch, not a big deal. I am assuming that lower price is only for M-F.
Anyway, it was about 2pm and we ordered our drinks, 25 cent non flavored martinis were still available even though it did not show it on the menu. We also ordered our 3 course meal from the COOLinary because I knew the waiter was completely stretched thin. I tried to have a lot of patience and compassion for him. He seemed to be the only one working the outside and the entire staff was inside focusing more on the private event. They were totally unprepared for the few diners that arrived and this is a new COOLinary restaurant so that added to this disaster.
So the drinks took about 20 minutes to arrive, that included our glasses of water. Our appetizers, the thimble filled soup of the day, which was a tasty crawfish and corn bisque was good but we still had no water to wash it down with - or martinis for that matter. I always come prepared being an ex-girl scout, so I brought my own water and didn't choke on the bisque....but that's pretty bad to have the apps out before the drinks. All the drinks came out after we finished our teacup of soup, which did not take very long to eat.
Next, everyone ordered the steak and I ordered the fish. It came with potatoes while the steak came with grits - and that right there is an odd combo...Normally potatoes go with steak and the fish go with grits. The fish was fried catfish almadine and it was pretty damn good. The steak, not so much, it was chewy and not seasoned. We had also ordered onion rings in addition, but those never showed up - might have gone to the private event.
The food came out and as they are placing it on the table the bussers asked that we cut into our steaks to ensure they were cooked correctly. I was a little confused by the lack of confidence in the chef, but I could totally understand by how completely disorganized everything/one was. We were so distracted by that, that we noticed after they left the grits did not come with the steaks. So, my brother complained to the waiter and was annoyed that he had not been told that they were replacing grits with potatoes. (I have to admit, that is a huge pet peeve of mine while dinning. If I go to the restaurant and they do not inform me of what they are out of immediately before even taking drink orders, I would rather just leave. Taceaux Loceaux recently did that to me, I was not pleased.) But anyway, this was not my dish that was messed up and the waiters reaction was totally clueless - shocker. He said he didn't even know the grits were supposed to be with the steak or he would have told us.
My brother was so disgusted that he asked for his dessert to go. The three of us wanted our dessert for there so we stayed. He left to smoke and the three of us enjoyed the last few minutes of the outdoor view of the golf course. It really was a pretty view. I would say it is similar to dinning at the Audubon Cafe and honestly, I would prefer to go there. The service and food is much better.
I understand a private event can be stressful and a little chaotic, I would suggest: 1) informing people on social media, 2) close the rest of the restaurant so you can focus completely on the private event, and 3) get more staff for those events if you must have the restaurant open.