John J.
Yelp
We visit the Valley every two or three years and always look forward to eating here. Always a little pricey but worth it. And we'll be back again, I'm sure, but tonight was not a good night. Would rate tonight two stars based on value for price, but bumping up a star based on past experiences.
We arrived, with reservations, to a half-empty restaurant. We (my wife and I) were first seated in a tight spot between a very large party and a wall, with a narrow aisle for the server to pass through separating us. After being seated, we realized this spot was not for us and asked to be reseated. Good thing, too, since moments later a player arrived to play corny Christmas tunes at a piano *immediately * adjacent (less than 3 feet away) to our original table. Nobody had asked us if we minded giving up our night's conversation in favor of the piano. I'm sure some folks would've loved it, but you need to ask before sitting people that close to the music. Anyway, glad we moved.
If all else had gone well, I wouldn't be bothering with this review. But. The timing was terrible: we ordered cocktails before dinner. When they arrived, our waiter took our order - and within two minutes appeared with our soup and salad. My cream of cauliflower soup was great, but did not mix with my drink. What ever happened to enjoying a drink *before* dinner? My subsequent caesar salad was as good as any I've had, but when dinner arrived my wife's steak and baked potato were barely above room temperature. She also mentioned that her filet was incredibly dry. My New York strip was tasty, though. Oh, but the wine: we each ordered glasses of red, but both were *ice* cold. Like really really cold.
So we slogged through the meal, but as you might imagine we were ready pretty soon to write it off as an off night and move on. So we placed our utensils on our plates, pushed our plates a tiny bit away, and sat back a bit so the server could see we were finished. Which he might have, if on any of the six subsequent times that he passed near our table he had bothered to even glance at us. Finally, we had to get another server to request that our server bring our check. So he finally shows up asking what we need, not bringing the check as we requested of his colleague. I again asked for the check mentioned to him that as a server it is useful to look around at your tables whenever you pass through the room. He did not apologize.
Look, this is usually a great place. I'm sure we'll be back on some future visit to McAllen. Tonight, though, not so much. I hope the management is paying attention to this and that this was truly just a rare off-night and not a sign of declining service. At this price, you need to do better.
