Nick Raffalo
Google
Ohhhhh boy, do I have a story for you. Take a seat and buckle up for this tale about a journey through a snowstorm on Valentine’s Day to Saint Genevieve for their five-course menu for $125 per person.
Looking back, the beginning of the end was when our host became confused about where to seat us because they didn’t have the table numbers memorized. We thought nothing of it at the time, but looking back, it set quite an accurate tone for how the rest of the night would go.
Once seated, we were left to settle in for about 15-20 minutes before our server came by to get our drink orders. Sadly, they were “out of” the first cocktail I picked. No big deal! I’ll get the fairly simple martini with pear. Oops, we’re out of that one too, but hey we have this other martini, it’s the one James Bond drinks! Okay I’ll get that, no worries, things happen, I get it. Drinks come, and I’ll just say this was tiny lil martini. I was gonna go on a whole big rant about it, but I’ll spare you.
Anyways, I’ll just preface this now, the pacing of the puny courses was not only begrudgingly slow, but also oddly varied between course as well as tables. We sat down right about the same time as the couple next to us. Sometimes we would get one course 10+ minutes before them, sometimes the other way around. This combined with how pathetically tiny the first few courses were made it all the worse.
Anyways let’s finally get into the food. First course (no picture). One hollow ball of dough with a tiny bit of cheese one it. Very disappointing…1/5
The next course (the picture of the two little balls with some leaves on them) was kinda like those ham and cheese breakfast hot pockets, just a lot smaller, and with the breading of a corndog. Not too bad. 2.5/5.
Next was the leek. Definitely the saddest of all the dishes. Everything about it was off. The leek itself was mushy. The burrata…I mean just look at it. No basil to be tasted, as well as the honey. Just mushy onioniness. 1/5.
Now the scallop, and I love scallops. That considered, as well as getting just one scallop, this is a 3/5 as far as scallops go.
Steak, cooked well but so chewy for how medium rare it was. Made me suspect it’s not actually wagyu…The spoonful of mashed potatoes tasted like instant mashed potatoes, and the onions just tasted like the leek..2.5/5.
We got an “accompaniment” of the pommes de terre, where are those cubes with the black stuff on them. They looked good and we were really hoping they would be, but they were undercooked. You know when a potato isn’t quite done and it’s kinda hard. This had that. Plus it was in layers that just slid apart making it hard to handle. Just not a good experience. 1.5/5.
Last was this deconstructed cheesecake, which I have to say was my favorite part of the meal, as well as my partner’s. 4.5/5.
And so, at the end of the day, and around $400 later (with 2 drinks for both of us), there you have it. I don’t think I’ve ever felt strongly enough to leave a review for a restaurant, but after this I felt obligated to share my experience so that other people don’t make the same mistake I did.
Personally, I’m not too upset, all things considered, it was quite fun and surprising seeing all these oddities add up throughout the night. We definitely got some entertainment out of it, but I can see how this could really ruin someone’s night, especially with that price tag, and especially on Valentine’s Day.
