wired gassy primitive still bugged about restaurant

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=236x69023

Oh my.

The wired gassy primitive, from that farmette up there in Wisconsin:

grasswire  (1000+ posts)      Thu Sep-17-09 01:33 PM
Original message
 
I'm still bugged by that restaurant meal...

Last week some shirttail relatives were in town. They took us out for dinner, to a nice newer restaurant that has gotten mention in Gourmet magazine and other press. I ordered the lamb with toasted walnut and blackberry sauce. When it came, there were several small slices of lamb (about three ounces) and a spicy sausage patty about an ounce and a half.

I was really insulted by the fact that nowhere on the menu did it mention that the meat portion would include a lamb sausage patty. That, to me, violates the trust of the guest. I ordered lamb, not lamb sausage.

Even with the patty, I thought the portion size was very small. Four and a half ounces of meat? For 20 bucks, a la carte?

What say you?

This is not a fancy place, just a nice neighborhood restaurant where families are welcome, right next to a tavern.

Well, as we all know, franksolich doesn't know excresence about lamb, having avoided it like the plague all his life--disclaimer; this is not to say lamb is lousy and others shouldn't like it, only to say it doesn't appeal to franksolich as an individual--but what's the difference between slices of lamb, and lamb sausage?

By the time either one gets down into the stomach, it's all ground up anyway.

grasswire  (1000+ posts)      Thu Sep-17-09 01:35 PM
Response to Original message
 
1. here's the actual description from the menu

"Cattail Creek Farm Lamb

Green beans with toasted walnut butter, crushed blackberries, & mint sour cream potatoes $20"

Tesha  (1000+ posts)      Thu Sep-17-09 02:57 PM
Response to Original message
 
2. I agree...
 
for $20 of a lamb dinner you'd expect sliced meat - not ground lamb and not so skimpy.

Did you speak up, or did you not want to upset the founders of the feast?

grasswire  (1000+ posts)      Thu Sep-17-09 03:41 PM
Response to Reply #2
 
4. I did not.

But I plan to send an e-mail to the chef-owner. That's kinder than putting it in a review online, I think. The mint potatoes were a little screwy, too. But the blackberry toasted walnut sauce was really delicious.

The defrocked warped primitive:

Warpy  (1000+ posts)        Thu Sep-17-09 03:39 PM
Response to Original message

3. They were running out of lamb and had to extend it and places chichi enough to get into Gourmet often offer small portions.

Seriously, 4.5 oz. of meat is not that small. I realize that prole food joints offer an 8 oz. slab o cow, but fine dining portions are more sensible.

However, if they want to stay in business as a neighborhood restaurant, they're going to have to redesign their menu and price structure for that neighborhood. Mentions in Gourmet won't get people to go really far out of the way and won't do a whole lot of good unless the restaurant is in the big city.

grasswire  (1000+ posts)      Thu Sep-17-09 03:47 PM
Response to Reply #3
 
5. yes, I know that

But this is not a chi chi restaurant. Nor is it a prole food joint. It's a neighborhood restaurant in a largely blue-collar part of the city that has 837 restaurants in just that quadrant. I don't really care about the size of the portion as much as the fact that the kitchen should have told the guest that a spicy sausage would be replacing part of the lamb. Actually, I couldn't eat the sausage. The flavors were repugnant with the lovely sauce.

One of our dinner companions has twenty years of executive chef experience at some pretty ritzy establishments (including a Ritz Carlton) and thought the sausage an odd thing, too.

Warpy  (1000+ posts)        Thu Sep-17-09 03:55 PM
Response to Reply #5
 
6. It sounds like they're not going to be in business long unless they change that menu.

You might write them a note telling them how you feel. Praise the sauce and damn the sausage and suggest when someone orders something they're nearly out of, they inform him about any substitutions before the order goes in.

The Bayer aspirin primitive:

cbayer   (1000+ posts)      Thu Sep-17-09 04:21 PM
Response to Original message
 
7. I would rather have a small amount of something really good than a large amount of something mediocre. But that's just me and I realize that most people eat larger portions than I.

I usually order an appetizer as my main dish because I get full really fast, but I understand that if you ordered an entree, you expect more actual food.

Writing to the chef/owner sounds like a good idea. You may even receive an invitation to return with a meal on him!

In case anyone is wondering, yes, when confronted with a choice between a hamburger and a steak, franksolich always takes the hamburger.  It's all ground up anyway, by the time it reaches the stomach.

[BEG]

How can they afford a $20 meal in this * economy?

[Chris]

Complaining about a free meal (of lamb, no less)... real nice.  Is my reading comprehension off, or didn't he say his relatives paid for the meal?

Hell, the crab cakes at Amerigos are eight dollars and they're damn good crab cakes, worth every penny.

[franksolich]

Yeah, the relatives paid, and then the wired gassy primitive has the ingratitude to describe them as "shoestring" relatives, as if they're not important to him or her.

[The Village Idiot]

Yeah, the relatives paid, and then the wired gassy primitive has the ingratitude to describe them as "shoestring" relatives, as if they're not important to him or her.

I guess I'm a "Prole", maybe even an A-Prole...

I love balogna sandwiches on white bread with Frito's and a Dr Pepper.

Never tried lamb, I did try goat fajita and deer sausage and deer chili...

[Chris]

Lamb is good stuff but its not any better or worse than beef.  It's just different, which is nice.  Its sweet, like bison. 

I don't think I've ever had goat.

[GOBUCKS]

I don't think I've ever had goat.

My goat experience goes back to a very fine restaurant in Mexico City many years ago.
The problem was neither the menu nor the waiter had a word of English, and the three of us at the table would struggle to order at a Taco Bell.
My companions ordered with great difficulty, after all sorts of pidgin English and hand motions with the waiter.
With great sophistication, I simply closed the menu and told the waiter, in what I thought sounded really Spanish, "Carne grande!"
The waiter just nodded and wrote something on his pad.
When my meal came, it was on a gigantic platter, and was an entire small carcass, sans head and feet.
The consensus at the table was that it was a baby goat.
I would have had more confidence in that if I had been able to verify that it had hooves, and not paws.
Whatever the species, it was pretty good.

[Chris]

With great sophistication, I simply closed the menu and told the waiter, in what I thought sounded really Spanish, "Carne grande!"
The waiter just nodded and wrote something on his pad.

"big meat"?

I have no problem eating anything made of formerly-living animals.  I have heard that wild dog tastes like lamb and I wouldn't think twice about digging in to a plate as long as it isn't one of my own pets.

[jukin]

How can they afford a $20 meal in this * economy?

Because the relative bought it for them.  I just love the ingratitude that the DUmp has.

[Flame]

I love how he insists this restaurant isn't not a "frou frou" place, but welcomes families, etc.  Sure sounds like a frou frou place to me!

[JohnnyReb]

I don't think I've ever had goat.

I have and it's a funny story.......at least to me it is.

One spring my great uncle called and invited me and the "X" along with other family members down for a pot luck family union at his place. He had this 1/2 grown little goat running loose there that was cute as could be. The little goat jumped up in a hammock right amongst all the guest. When someone spoke the goat would look at them and then turn to look at the next person to speak as if he understood every word. Everyone enjoyed the little goat.....except my great uncle.

My great uncle told me about all the trouble he was having with the little goat. Seems the little goat liked to get on top of things....like his car or truck. If he parked his car or truck anywhere near the house the goat would jump on top and then onto the house. He'd have to call old Sam to come help him get the goat off the house.

Later that summer or fall, my great uncle called again and invited the whole family back down to his place for a BBQ that him and old Sam was cooking. Man that BBQ was great, you could cut it with your fork. I had several large slices of it myself along with all the other fixing's.

I was eating that last little piece of BBQ when I  remembered the little goat and what fun he had been at the last gathering. So I asked my great uncle, "Where's the little goat?" He answered, "You're eating that aggravating little son-of-a-bitch." Once again everyone enjoyed the little goat.....especially my great uncle.

[NHSparky]

I WISH we had a "frou frou" place within reasonable driving distance.  We have an Italian restaurant which is okay--not terribly creative, but okay.  There is one semi-tolerable steak place which is overrun by seniors every Friday and Saturday by 5 PM (prime rib--okay but not fantastic), one that hasn't gotten my order right yet (went twice, won't go three times), and a few horrible Chinese places.  We have NO "chain" restaurants, save one Friendly's and the ubiquitus McDonalds (1) /Burger King (1) /KFC (1)/Subway (2).  Everyplace else SUCKS.  If I wanted a decent sit-down dinner, it's off to Portsmouth or Kittery, and the prices that come along with it.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Goat's fine, it's a very lean dark meat, a lot like venison, which is pretty understandable given that deer and goats are rather closely related.  My sister raises 'em, I have eaten it many times, even butchered one I got from a neighbor for a local special event myself.

[BadCat]

Hey DUmmy, if it came with potatoes, it is not "a la carte".

[NHSparky]

Hey DUmmy, if it came with potatoes, it is not "a la carte".

Anything short of an "all-you-can-eat" buffet is a la carte to a DUmmie. 

"Whuuuuut?  Ya mean I got to pay fer my beverage, too?  RACISTS!!!"

[Karin]

Yeah, her first sentence pissed me off too.  "Shirttail relative" took us out for dinner.  Ungrateful pig.  And she's still obssessing about it on the DU?  Her life seems like a pile of crap right now, and it seems to me that she's been relying on the kindness of strangers and not-so-strangers.  She ought to count her blessings. 

[delilahmused]

Lamb is good stuff but its not any better or worse than beef.  It's just different, which is nice.  Its sweet, like bison. 

I don't think I've ever had goat.

Goat is wonderful and very healthy.

Cindie

[ReaganForRushmore]

Goat's fine, it's a very lean dark meat, a lot like venison, which is pretty understandable given that deer and goats are rather closely related.  My sister raises 'em, I have eaten it many times, even butchered one I got from a neighbor for a local special event myself.

Cabrito........have a pit out back that is slow roasting for a neighborhood feast tonight. It is very good......

Goat, it's what's for dinner.

[DumbAss Tanker]

I'll be right over, after a stop for a 12-pack of cold beer...

 

[BlueStateSaint]

Goat's fine, it's a very lean dark meat, a lot like venison, which is pretty understandable given that deer and goats are rather closely related.  My sister raises 'em, I have eaten it many times, even butchered one I got from a neighbor for a local special event myself.

I'm hoping to increase my household venison count soon.