A good meal is hard to find
M and I love to go out to eat. Friday night is date night, and we have a stable of restaurants we usually frequent. Of course, that gets old, so we're always looking for a new place, especially an independent one that we could make a haunt out of. Enter last night's adventure.
Dan wrote up this review of the Bolton Roadhouse, which is only about 15 minutes away. I talked to him about it, and he said we should try it for ourselves. So after much back-and-forth about where to go for dinner, we took a ride over to Bolton.
We pulled into the teeny-tiny parking lot and squeezed the Camry into a space. When we walked in, there were several people waiting to be seated with no hostess in sight. M was a bit concerned, but I wanted to give it a chance.
We finally were seated. The decor was dark and homey, with Scarface movie posters on the walls creating an edgy feel. We checked out the menu, and M decided to order the lamb stew special for St. Patty's Day while I went with the chicken poivre and a salad to start.
We got a breadbasket full of squished bread. I was hungry, so I chowed down. My salad came. Just iceberg lettuce with croutons, cucumbers, tomatoes and onions -- $3.99 for this? It should have come with the meal or at least be offered at a discount because it comes with a meal.
Our dinners came fairly quickly. I had two large chicken breasts in a cracked peppercorn and brandy cream sauce over rice pilaf. When I asked the server if it came with veggies -- the night's special was butternut squash, and I love that -- she replied with a curt "no" and turned away. M's "stew" was a thin soup with pieces of lamb in it. For $13.99, he was expecting a thick, rich, meat-heavy concoction loaded with potatoes and carrots and onions. So he did something out of character: He sent it back.
When he got up from his chair to find the waitress (which he never should have had to do), she did take it back without fuss. She told him she'd grab him a menu and took another five to 10 minutes to do it. Umm, when a customer is unhappy, they need to be satisfied now. She should have dropped whatever it was that she was doing and gotten him a menu immediately.
M ordered a corned beef sandwich and fries. Meanwhile, here I am with a huge plate full of food. If you've ever eaten with me, you know I eat like the wind. So I had to pick at it so as not to be completely done eating before he got his food. I gave M half of one of my chicken breasts so he wouldn't be starving -- remember, he didn't have a salad. It really was quite good. M's corned beef sandwich and fries were fine. That's pretty hard to screw up.
I will say the waitress was really nice about sending back the "stew." And the actual food quality was excellent. But yannow, they just really need to get their act together. (For more proof, check out their Web site.) On the way out, we heard a customer telling the manager that he thought the place was quite mediocre when he first tried it. So it's not just us. And they weren't exactly turning people away at the door on a Friday night. Also, when we got the bill, there were no free refills on my Diet Coke. (See Waiter Rant's thoughts on this, which I second.)
So while our search for a special-occasion restaurant to replace our beloved Brass Pineapple was recently rewarded by finding this place, we're still looking for a local, consistently good, independently owned restaurant to spend Friday nights. We love this place, but it's kind of a hike, and we're both prone to the Friday-night sleepies. C'mon out of lurkdom and give me some suggestions.
Dan wrote up this review of the Bolton Roadhouse, which is only about 15 minutes away. I talked to him about it, and he said we should try it for ourselves. So after much back-and-forth about where to go for dinner, we took a ride over to Bolton.
We pulled into the teeny-tiny parking lot and squeezed the Camry into a space. When we walked in, there were several people waiting to be seated with no hostess in sight. M was a bit concerned, but I wanted to give it a chance.
We finally were seated. The decor was dark and homey, with Scarface movie posters on the walls creating an edgy feel. We checked out the menu, and M decided to order the lamb stew special for St. Patty's Day while I went with the chicken poivre and a salad to start.
We got a breadbasket full of squished bread. I was hungry, so I chowed down. My salad came. Just iceberg lettuce with croutons, cucumbers, tomatoes and onions -- $3.99 for this? It should have come with the meal or at least be offered at a discount because it comes with a meal.
Our dinners came fairly quickly. I had two large chicken breasts in a cracked peppercorn and brandy cream sauce over rice pilaf. When I asked the server if it came with veggies -- the night's special was butternut squash, and I love that -- she replied with a curt "no" and turned away. M's "stew" was a thin soup with pieces of lamb in it. For $13.99, he was expecting a thick, rich, meat-heavy concoction loaded with potatoes and carrots and onions. So he did something out of character: He sent it back.
When he got up from his chair to find the waitress (which he never should have had to do), she did take it back without fuss. She told him she'd grab him a menu and took another five to 10 minutes to do it. Umm, when a customer is unhappy, they need to be satisfied now. She should have dropped whatever it was that she was doing and gotten him a menu immediately.
M ordered a corned beef sandwich and fries. Meanwhile, here I am with a huge plate full of food. If you've ever eaten with me, you know I eat like the wind. So I had to pick at it so as not to be completely done eating before he got his food. I gave M half of one of my chicken breasts so he wouldn't be starving -- remember, he didn't have a salad. It really was quite good. M's corned beef sandwich and fries were fine. That's pretty hard to screw up.
I will say the waitress was really nice about sending back the "stew." And the actual food quality was excellent. But yannow, they just really need to get their act together. (For more proof, check out their Web site.) On the way out, we heard a customer telling the manager that he thought the place was quite mediocre when he first tried it. So it's not just us. And they weren't exactly turning people away at the door on a Friday night. Also, when we got the bill, there were no free refills on my Diet Coke. (See Waiter Rant's thoughts on this, which I second.)
So while our search for a special-occasion restaurant to replace our beloved Brass Pineapple was recently rewarded by finding this place, we're still looking for a local, consistently good, independently owned restaurant to spend Friday nights. We love this place, but it's kind of a hike, and we're both prone to the Friday-night sleepies. C'mon out of lurkdom and give me some suggestions.
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