03/01/09

Strike 3

by foodiecoupleagain

My husband and i are done with giving this place a shot. The service is excellent if you are the "right people". It is very bad if you don't seem to personally know them. For example, the waitress put off taking our orders twice and then literally stopped in the middle of taking our order to get another table a refill of water. After that order, our food took an inordinate amount of time. Two hours time for 2 courses is too long. The food is extremely over seasoned. It isn't even that good. Neither was the wine. The cheese plate with honey is a joke. It comes with a handful of colored raisins dumped on the plate with a thin streak of honey drawn across the plate in what i assume is meant to be "presentation". There's barely enough honey to get on one spread of the table knife. (No cheese knife is offered). The hard crustini that comes with it is not elegant and already encrusted in parmasan cheese. The crust has to be biten off on the sides of your teeth which is embarrasing. It was also very overspiced with salt, pepper, and a spicy seasoning. The duck confit on ceasar was also so oversalted that it was almost inedible. I could go on about the food and service, but won't. Unfortunatly, we have wasted time and money at this place two other times. I don't know how on earth this place is getting good reviews. It's been a major disappointment for us 3/3 times. Needless to say, we are done with this place.

• Pros: only if you are a regular
• Cons: food, service, size

12/18/08

Don't get the fries

by DKAustin

I had lunch here yesterday and had the turkey and swiss sandwich and french fries. I didn't have any problems with the sandwich, it was average but the french fries i got were so over seasoned with a nasty mix of salt and bbq flavoring, they were inedible. I would probublly give the cafe a 2nd try, but i would not ever order the fries again.

08/01/08

Sad Decline of a Previously Good Neighborhood Cafe

by txgrl99

We used to be regulars at 34th Street, but after 1 very bad experience and two mediocre ones, I won?t be going back. About six months ago we had a very average meal, as opposed to the excellent ones we?d enjoyed over the years. Nothing was horrible, but nothing was exceptional either. We decided to give it another try about a month ago, to disastrous results. We started with the raw oysters, which basically ruined the entire meal. They were foul ? bad smelling and even worse tasting. They were rubbery and tasted ancient, maybe even spoiled. The waitress was gracious when we sent them back, but I wasn?t sure she or the chef understood how inedible they were. We eat oysters out a lot and after having some great ones recently (in Las Vegas at Bouchon and here at Parkside), these were just terrible. The awful taste stuck with us through the entire meal. I had the vegetable plate, which had good and bad spots. The couscous wasn?t as good as what I make at my house. It was dry and flavorless. The roasted beets, however, were very good. Another vegetable (which escapes me) was tough and dry. The kitchen was kind enough to make the chicken enchiladas for my husband even though they are no longer on the menu, but he said they were a little hard around the edges and not as good as they?d been previously. I also had a disappointing lunch there this week. I took my sister for her birthday. She liked her chicken quesadillas, but I did not enjoy my lunch. The gazpacho was like eating pico de gallo in flavorless tomato broth. It was unreasonably chunky yet flavorless. I had the mandarin orange salad with goat cheese and toasted pecans. The dressing was bitter and it was difficult to find the infinitesimal amount of goat cheese in the salad. The pecans were flavorless as well. I am disappointed in the decline of a restaurant that I used to enjoy so much.