Tara C.
Yelp
Let me say, I take no pleasure in writing a crummy review, especially for a private restaurant, but I don't believe I have ever been more disappointed in a restaurant.
We are new to Long Beach and looked forward to trying the famous Michael's. We went on Christmas Eve, and I was quite excited at the prix fix, which makes a lot of sense on a night like Christmas Eve.
We arrived early as said we weren't in a rush, so we sat at the bar and had an excellent martini. Looking back at it, the height of the experience. The bar was my first red flag. I asked for sparkling water and we received water that had bubbles, then fell flat immediately. But let's be real, if that was the worst thing of the night, it wouldn't even have been worth a mention. But as I said, it was a harbinger.
We asked to be moved from our first table because it was between the doors of the kitchen, which might have been ok if not for the very loud exchanges between the servers as they came in and out of the kitchen, so we asked to move and we were accommodated immediately, but then left standing there in the most awkward fashion. We made it to our table and settled in. It was 15 minutes before anyone came to the table, and when they did, there was just "what would you like to order?" No, "hi, can I answer questions?", "can I get you another drink?" Just straight to it, with the asterisk that they were out of several dishes. I did ask for bottled sparkling water so it wouldn't fall flat, but that wasn't an option.
It was 45 minutes from when we sat down to our first dish. During that time, we were never checked on. I had my meal with the wine pairing. The first pairing was really excellent and I hoped that the night would turn around. In one or two cases, the wine pairing was genius enough that transformed the dish and without the wine, the dish was one-note. But overall, while so promising, dinner was really disappointing, under seasoned and in a few cases poorly cooked.
I've no idea if this was a bad night, or if Michael's survives on a reputation from days long past.
So, normally I sign off with a suggestion about going, but this time my suggestion is to pass.