Ricky R.
Yelp
This restaurant is completely opposite of what I look for in food. Its fine dining, its seafood, and they have a 20% service charge. Now I will speak more about all of these further into this review, but I wanted to get my early thoughts out. For being the last place I would ever pick based on my previous statement, it wasnt bad. I think most people giving a 1 star are unhappy about the service charge or price, I dont think 1 or 2 are fair at all. Hell 3 might not be fair, but its not my style. So take my review with a grain of salt. I wont be back, I wasnt unhappy, its just not my style of restaurant.
Before I dive into my reasoning for hating fine dining, let me address the 20% service charge. I have always hated the automatic gratuity. I have made this clear in previous reviews. Its just not my thing. I think they do it best here. One there are signs everywhere, so you know its included and you dont get tricked to tip on top if you dont want to. Two they have a great FAQ that breaks down how this works. Plus within there you can say you dont have to do the service charge. I dont know the processes, but if thats true, its cool because it gives you an out if you dont like it. Three on the receipt our waitress circled and called out the automatic gratuity. All three of these things allows some freedom of choice and you dont feel cheated. The explanation feels very good as well and not cheap. This will always be a negative, but I think they present as well as you can.
I hate fine dining. Its just that simple. I dont like paying too much for nothing special. Since I dont really like seafood, the lobster shack probably wasnt a great pick, but it also wasnt my choice. Its so frustrating going to a place like this and not having real option to spend less than $40 on a meal. I picked the pork chop because I dont care for fish, and the price of steak is stupid. The pork chop was pretty good, not $40 good, but a decent cut of pork, prepared pretty well. Evey thing was pretty good, except the price.
The chop was cooked maybe a touch over for my taste, not off by much, but I would have personally pulled it off a minute earlier to keep the same moisture throughout. It wasnt dry, but it was close near the edge away from the bone. The Brussel's were good, but not quite enough. I think 5 full brussel's were included. The finger potatoes were good, but I prefer my potato slight more cooked. It wasnt raw, but more on the firm side for a roasted potato. Nothing on the plate even comes close to justifying $40. Take the most organic, the most prime, cut of any pork chop and I doubt you will get over $12/lb. Hell whole foods organic is $9/lb and I think that is the most I have ever seen. Its a 10oz cut and that means less than $10 of pork chop. The brussels and potatoes probably didnt cost $30 and I cant imagine Apple chutney costs too much. So what did I pay for?? No seriously. I mean the view is ok, less so on a cloudy day. The bread and olive oil were nice, nothing I havent made at home. Thats why I hate fine dining. That pork chop dinner at $20 is still probably high, but decent and I leave smiling. $40??? Literally a joke. Hell my wife got pasta and while the lobster was plenty and the noodles home made, once again nothing justifies the price.
I will reiterate the TLDR. For a place that is completely opposite of what I would ever choose, they did ok. The price will always be the biggest hurdle for me. I can say i will likely never be here again, not because of anything any of the staff did, they were lovely. The food wasnt bad. Its the price. I hate that their are no reasonable alternatives to buying over priced food. Next time I will just stay home and let my wife go out with her family.