The other night while out to dinner for my friend's bday at Snack Taverna in the West Village over braised short ribs with pumpkin puree and pancetta (which was YUM!), someone posed the question, "What's your favorite restaurant in New York?" to each person at the table. I was dumb founded. There was no way I would be able to answer that question with a single entry. I thought maybe I could break it down by cuisine but even then its near impossible. How do I answer French? High end would be Chantarelle or maybe Per Se... but that's special occassion dining...on the normal dining experience it would be Jubilee...or maybe Cafe Joul? My mind raced.
So now I pose a new question. What restaurant do you dislike the most in New York? The worst food...horrible service...would never return type place. With so many great establishments around the city, it's hard to even identify these places. So often eateries are publicized for the trendy atmosphere or celebrity owners and we forget that patrons actually go to there to eat.
I can't say for sure where any of the restaurants below fall in my top list of "most unappetizing dining experiences" but if they are on this list at all, it's not a good thing in general.
English is Italian- Recently closed English is Italian promised celeb chef success. Unfortunately for Todd English, the place fell WAY short. I went there a couple of years ago for lunch during Restaurant Week. The service was slow and unattentive during business lunch hours, which proves less customers than dinner service and more antsy patrons anxious to get back to work. The food was over salty and for a salt-lover like myself that says a lot. I can't remember exactly what I ate because I all I remember is the sodium overdose. Not a memory I'd like to look back on.
Punch- I went to Punch three time all together. The first two times were decent..nothing to write home about nothing to complain about but in a conveniant location to the movie theater and an equi distant point for gathering, I returned a third time only to be severly disappointed. The service was weird and awkward. It felt like everyone was on their first night and the Maitre D' actually made me feel uncomfortable. The scallops I had the second time I was at Punch were great...the third time, not so much. If a restaurant can't be consistent, whats the point in returning?
China Grill-Another restuarant week outing gone horribly awry. This place was completely overhyped. From unattentive service to soggy and congealed dumplings and the kicker of cold entrees- this place definitely takes the cake. As I've said before, I'd rather go to PF Changs for better food, service and ambiance and that's pretty pathetic since the chain establishments are usually associated with strip malls.
I'm sure there are many more to add to this list, but I'll leave it at these three for now. Somehow its easier to narrow it down to three bad restaurants than 3 favorite restaurants..there are just too many good ones to pick from.
Showing posts with label China Grill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label China Grill. Show all posts
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Thursday, February 1, 2007
China Nill
If I wanted to go to a glorified PF Changs, I'd hit up a suburban mall. Unfortunately, I hit up a sub-par version when I went with my sister and surrogate sis to China Grill the other night. I don't even know where to begin. Now, I'm well aware that I can be quite critical when it comes to restaurants. But my table-mates absolutely validated everything I thought and we all left with mouths wide open and a sense of shock. How could this restaurant that is deemed high quality be so damn shitty?
Starting with the decor. I would feel more hip eating at the Cheesecake factory. When your menu include $40 entrees I would think they would have the decency to boost up the ambiance. But China Grill does not. Guests sit on wicker chairs as Madonna's Erotica album plays from surround sound. While this might be amusing for my sister, I hardly think it adds a touch of class.
The service is so unattentive, I was about to print out my own check. From the get-go, we were all confused as to who are server was. A woman came over to welcome us and then neglected us for the next 20 minutes while we sat menus closed staring her down. Finally, a guy came over to pour us water. He asked can I take your drink order while you decide? Even without knowing that he apparently was our waiter as well- we took a chance and gave him our full order. He replied, "Easy enough." The phrase makes me laugh in hindsight. Is it really "easy enough" to bring out the dishes in a well-timed fashion and assure us our plates wouldn't be cold and our appetites soured? Absolutely not. I could hear him bickering in the corner to his co-worker, "I'm so over tonight!"
Our first appetizer came to the table-the crispy calamari salad. I was not impressed although my sis and sur-sis were both content. There was nothing special about it. But I waited in the hopes that then next plate would be something exciting... and then came our soggy congealed dumplings. What was in them again? I hardly remember. Maybe because all I tasted was steamed dough in a sweet and sour sauce. Before we had even finshed our appetizers, our first entree reached our table. While it sat at the edge for 5 minutes as a bus boy changed our app plates to our "entree plates", my sister took the first serve. I plucked a fried onion string from the entree plate to find it was cold and not even bordering luke warm. It turns out the entire dish was cold. So we sent it back. 2 minutes later our skirt steak with lomein got to us. This looked a bit more promising. I would go as far to say this was the best dish we ate at China Grill, but that is still not saying much. It was good but the other dishes were so unappealing, I'd still rather order in chinese take-out. Our drunken chicken returned to our table clearly reheated. As we cut into the dried-out chicken, we knew what the future already held for us. It was a gonner. Our table was cleared off and we sat joking about how terrible the dessert will have to be to finish the meal with a bang! The dessert was actually okay, but how can you fuck up sorbet? There was also some sort of mousse that was light and sweet, but nothing could candycoat the meal at that point.
Maybe we should have ordered their more popular dishes off the regular menu? But all I know is that by the end of the meal, I was happy I had only spent the restuarant week pre fix. If I had spent any more money on crap food and experience, I would be POed. I will definitely never return to China Grill. If I ever get the urge for snazzed up Chinese food, I'll go to the strip mall. At least I know the lettuce wraps at PF Changs are good.
Starting with the decor. I would feel more hip eating at the Cheesecake factory. When your menu include $40 entrees I would think they would have the decency to boost up the ambiance. But China Grill does not. Guests sit on wicker chairs as Madonna's Erotica album plays from surround sound. While this might be amusing for my sister, I hardly think it adds a touch of class.
The service is so unattentive, I was about to print out my own check. From the get-go, we were all confused as to who are server was. A woman came over to welcome us and then neglected us for the next 20 minutes while we sat menus closed staring her down. Finally, a guy came over to pour us water. He asked can I take your drink order while you decide? Even without knowing that he apparently was our waiter as well- we took a chance and gave him our full order. He replied, "Easy enough." The phrase makes me laugh in hindsight. Is it really "easy enough" to bring out the dishes in a well-timed fashion and assure us our plates wouldn't be cold and our appetites soured? Absolutely not. I could hear him bickering in the corner to his co-worker, "I'm so over tonight!"
Our first appetizer came to the table-the crispy calamari salad. I was not impressed although my sis and sur-sis were both content. There was nothing special about it. But I waited in the hopes that then next plate would be something exciting... and then came our soggy congealed dumplings. What was in them again? I hardly remember. Maybe because all I tasted was steamed dough in a sweet and sour sauce. Before we had even finshed our appetizers, our first entree reached our table. While it sat at the edge for 5 minutes as a bus boy changed our app plates to our "entree plates", my sister took the first serve. I plucked a fried onion string from the entree plate to find it was cold and not even bordering luke warm. It turns out the entire dish was cold. So we sent it back. 2 minutes later our skirt steak with lomein got to us. This looked a bit more promising. I would go as far to say this was the best dish we ate at China Grill, but that is still not saying much. It was good but the other dishes were so unappealing, I'd still rather order in chinese take-out. Our drunken chicken returned to our table clearly reheated. As we cut into the dried-out chicken, we knew what the future already held for us. It was a gonner. Our table was cleared off and we sat joking about how terrible the dessert will have to be to finish the meal with a bang! The dessert was actually okay, but how can you fuck up sorbet? There was also some sort of mousse that was light and sweet, but nothing could candycoat the meal at that point.
Maybe we should have ordered their more popular dishes off the regular menu? But all I know is that by the end of the meal, I was happy I had only spent the restuarant week pre fix. If I had spent any more money on crap food and experience, I would be POed. I will definitely never return to China Grill. If I ever get the urge for snazzed up Chinese food, I'll go to the strip mall. At least I know the lettuce wraps at PF Changs are good.
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