I apoligize in advance for the wall o'text. We had a 'tasting' tonight and ended up leaving disappointed, frankly.
Backstory: When we first found this venue, we immediately fell in love with it. The owner told us that they don't do private tastings of every entree for us, and that basically we rely on reviews, etc. There were a few other venues we looked at that were the same so it didn't bother me, and I had read a lot of really good reviews in several places online.
Well, a month or so ago we got an invitation to an "Open House and Tasting" so we assumed that they had changed their policy (I know, stupid of me to assume, but what else would I think?). We got there tonight and there were a lot of people there, checking it out, many of whom had already booked like we had (we've already put in three deposits). So, we go to the bar and then they start passing around appetizers.
After a while we're sitting at a table, talking with other couples, and all of us were wondering when they'd do the entrees. One of the representatives (who frankly was pretty annoying, as when we walked in kept saying how it was good to see me, how we had talked so many times, etc. and I had never met the woman before in my life) came to the table and while talking, asking questions, etc. we found out that no, no entrees. Just the appetizers. My FI was ticked, and the other couples weren't very happy either. We did talk to the owner again but they pretty much do not budge on the entrees. Though we did find out that the crab cake balls they were passing are not actually appetizer choices but a taste of their crab cakes (they were very good). We've been pretty torn on going with one of the two chicken dishes offered or sticking with the steak, and now we're no closer to picking anything than we were before the open house.
And with regards to the appetizers - frankly, I was less than impressed. There were scallops wrapped in bacon, chicken/spinach dumplings, fried shrimp, meat & veggie skewers (that had to be eaten with a fork so hardly a passed appetizer IMHO), and a variety of three mini quiche.
Nothing was awful, but to me they all seemed like frozen appetizers that they had warmed up. Except for the skewers, and they were kind of bland. The scallops were definitely the best, so we'll go with those, but I'm not sure which of the others we would pick. Probably the quiche and dumplings, I did not like the shrimp at all. It was fairly clear to me that none of it (except skewers) were made in-house, and it really makes me worry about the reception.
I just hope we didn't make a big mistake going here.
