Tim C.
Yelp
I came with my family for restaurant week, and we were all disappointed with the meal as a whole. Since there were four of us, we essentially got to order most of the restaurant week menu.
We made reservations beforehand, and we were glad we did because the place filled up not long after we got there. Unfortunately, that seemed to put us at a slight disadvantage, because we weren't told of the prime rib special that day, which was also another option on the restaurant week menu that wasn't printed on the menus we were given. We only found this out after we got our food and overhead other wait staff tell their tables this useful bit of information. I guess our waitress just didn't bother to mention it to us.
Regarding the food, we started with Fried Green Tomatoes, Chicken Satay, and a Summer Berry Salad.
The Fried Green Tomatoes were mushy on the inside - a good fried green tomato will hold up even after its fried, in my opinion, so the actual tomato should still have a firm bite on the inside while being crisp from the fried exterior. This one was not - it was crispy on the outside, but mushy on the inside. The bacon jam was tasty, as was the pimento cheese.
The Chicken Satay came only with two skewers, and the cucumber salad on the side was inundated with vinegar - way too much. The peanut sauce was flavorful, though.
The Summer Berry Salad was nothing to write home about. It was also small in size.
For entrees, we tried the Shrimp and Grits, Baby Back Ribs, and Grilled Mahi Mahi over rice and curry.
The shrimp tasted good in the shrimp and grits, but that's about all that went well. The grits were the wrong consistency - not smooth - and the flavors were just ok.
The ribs had minimal flavor, and the texture was off. It almost seemed like it was cooked in a pressure cooker and broiled quickly to attempt to give it a char - the interior of the meat was just.. mushy. There were also only three ribs on the plate. The crispy fried zucchini was the best part of that plate.
The mahi mahi tasted decent, but was a bit dry. The curry was coconut overload, and didn't mesh well in flavor with the fish at all, in my opinion.
For dessert, the Chocolate Torte was incredibly rich for me, and the Grilled Buttermilk Biscuit was.. interesting. It was like a biscuit-turned-into-French-Toast concept that felt heavy. The ice cream was good, though.
The dinner rolls and butter were probably the highlight of the meal in terms of food. Those were really good.
Our service, as I mentioned before, didn't feel comprehensive. We weren't told all the specials, and it just felt very unpersonable.
The space is small, so once more people came, it felt very full - borderline crowded. It's a clean restaurant, though, and the shopping area upstairs is a nice way to pass time if you're waiting to be seated, or need something to do after the meal.
Overall, it was an underwhelming meal. We went for restaurant week, and that should be the time when restaurants try to impress customers with a sampling of their menu. I felt like we got shafted with portion size, and probably would have had better (as well as more) food if we ordered from the regular menu instead. That's unfortunate.
