Larry B.
Yelp
Our family has been going to Sage since they opened and we live in the neighborhood, so it has been exciting to see Sage expand over the years. This is possible because they have consistently served wonderfully tasty and creative dishes.
That being said, enter our Mother's Day celebration this evening. We requested in our reservations for our party to be sat on the patio outside. When we were seated at the table at the back of the patio, we noticed several flies around our table. We ignored them at first. After several minutes, we noticed more. When I turned to look at the party of four sitting next to us, the man with his back to me had 5-6 flies on his back and arms (but thankfully didn't realize it). This continued throughout the evening, but we decided it best to just push through and not complain. I defended our table from a whole host of flies throughout our meal.
Thankfully, our food was fantastic as usual and our service was great. The only major food issue (interestingly enough echoing a similar post from this evening!) was the portion size on the salmon. It was noticeably small. We ordered it because of seeing a substantial portion presented to another table. However, the portion we got was not even the size of a deck of cards. It paled in comparison to the stuffed rainbow trout and NY strip special we also ordered, which were perfectly sized portions and amazingly delicious. The deviled eggs, fish dip and oyster platter were also wonderful.
Back to "Salmon-gate". We asked our server to check with the kitchen about it. She quickly informed us they would prepare another piece, which should have fixed the problem. Instead, we were presented with a second piece that was smaller than the original piece. I have to say I was shocked that this chance to fix this situation was fumbled so badly. All I can imagine is that they were running out of salmon. Instead of not serving it, they tried to cut portions. In all of my visits to Sage, I have never encountered this before.
I hope I'm not being unfair. My family and I truly love Sage and have for many, many years. This is one of Tallahassee's finest restaurants and we will be back. But with great power comes great responsibility. First, the fly problem was hopefully a one-time thing but if not, work to fix this issue. Second, the kitchen should never send out anything it knows to be less than their normal standard of excellence they have always maintained over the years. And when someone points out a legitimate mistake, they should go overboard to correct it.