High Expectations?

Since Prabu won't be in NJ on my birthday, we decided to do an early birthday dinner yesterday. I have been thinking of going to Tarbells and so Mr.Husband took me there. One more disappointment. I guess I had higher expectations because I was walking into a restaurant whose Chef won the Iron Chef contest against Kat Cora on Food TV.

I know I shouldn’t have expected the food to be awesome but it felt mediocre to me.
The menu seemed nothing extra-ordinary. Fine, if you cannot have truffles and foie-gras on the menu, but onion rings, roasted chicken with mashed potatoes, Spaghetti with meat balls? Seriously? I ordered Scallops with the tomato compote and maitaki mushrooms and Prabu the Roasted chicken. It was blah. I had better scallops at Meola’s in NJ. We also got their Tumble weed onions with ‘Secret dipping sauce’. Well it’s not as fancy as the name. Onion rings and the secret sauce. Let me tell you what it is: Ketchup, cucumbers, honey mustard, mayo and little sprinkle of may be chili powder. The warm chocolate cake with pistachio icecream was the only delicious thing of the whole meal.

I really do not want to get started on the service. I have said this probably a million times before. If you claim yourself to be a high-end restaurant then do not try to rush me out within an hour on a fricking Monday night. When you place my entrée with one hand while taking away my appetizer on the other – that shows you are just a wannabe high-end place. Please wait till I finish my first course before you fire my next course. Even Applebee’s waits for 2 minutes after the table gets cleared between courses and I don’t even have to pay $30 for roast chicken. May be it’s just me. If I want to just eat whatever I can go to a chain restaurant or a Chinese take-out. When I pick these restaurants, I pick them for an experience. I am not going in to just eat spaghetti or mac & cheese (unless those things have truffles in them;))

The only best part of the dinner, it was in a complex where there were benches outside few feet away from all the stores. Prabu and I sat there after dinner and had a good time just talking.