Getting it Right

More and more I'm very impressed with restaurants (and other businesses) that get it right. And on the other hand, I feel terrible for the restaurants that don't. Mom and I had dinner at a new seafood restaurant tonight that just didn't get it right.

Walking in, I thought the atmosphere was very nice. But it went down hill from there. Mom is drinking a lot of sparkling water now, like Dawn and I. Especially with a little lemon or lime, it's a great replacement for soda. And it has a little kick that still water doesn't have, of course, and is nice when you're having dinner. They didn't have sparkling water. "Oh well. Just a bottled water then..." They don't carry bottled water. Mom went through a few options before she just settled on "a glass of coke."

That wasn't the worst part of the experience by far, but it bugs me when restaurants don't have sparkling or bottled water. I know some people think bottled water is dumb, but it beats the hell out of soda, and I don't drink alcohol. And though I'm sure some tap water is just fine, I've had plenty that tastes like dishwater. Just give me my damn bottled water.

I was annoyed too that Mom had to order soda, especially when she is trying hard to lose weight right now. But we come to the second topic that I think the restaurant missed on. The menu it was very hard to order anything on the menu that wasn't friend, or included a lot of carbs. This is a big miss in my book, because lots of people are watching their weight these days.

I should say here that the theme of the restaurant was a good one: sustainable seafood. They don't serve any seafood that isn't farm raised or sustainably fished. Let's just say there was a lot of shellfish on the menu. And trout. And a certain type of salmon from Alaska.

I decided to try the diver scallops. No carbs really, and when prepared well, I enjoy scallops quite a bit. --I had every reason to expect the food here would be exceptional. And to be fair, apart from the fact they weren't cooked all the way, they were quite good.

Mom saw me questioning the first scallop I guess when we started dinner. It tasted fine to me, had no bad smell of any sort, but it was a little cool in the center. I was confused because the top was charred (is that the right description?) nicely. But I guess that was done independently of the basic cooking.

Despite not really liking scallops, Mom reached over and helped herself to a bit and immediately made me send it back. We were sitting right by the open kitchen, and was able to watch as the head chef examined the dinner when the server brought it back. Sure enough, the head chef/owner acted displeased toward the cook who prepared the dinner and stood over him as he prepared a new plate.

The owner brought out the new plate, apologized, and sure enough it was very tasty. But it's hard to completely enjoy your dinner after having just been served partially cooked seafood. In fact, I was feeling a little funny on the right home wondering if I would be waking up on death's door in the middle of the night. (A quick search on Google reveals however that you can in fact eat completely raw scallops if they're fresh and good.)

Additionally, Mom's shrimp was overcooked. And the service was really just average.

Though very new, you can't afford to provide guests with anything other than a perfect experience in the restaurant industry. We won't be back. We won't recommend it. And that just kills me. It's a locally owned business, which I love to support. I love the idea of a sustainable seafood restaurant. And having a new trendy place in this small town is nice.

I suppose we could give it another try later, but it doesn't really work that way with restaurants. And I have more and more respect for restaurants that get it right from the very start and then keep it together later.