Is anyone else tired of bad food/service at expensive restaurants?

[Drew]

Dined last night at Kali's Court in Fells Point, Baltimore. High reviews and expensive. All entrees were above $22 and completely a la carte = an average dinner of $50 per factering 1 appetizer course, 1 salad course, entree and 1 side minus drinks and wine. Below is the email I sent to management. Am I asking too much? BTW took son and daughter in law to see "Jesus Christ Superstar at the Hippodrome in Baltimore...Wonderful and strange at the same time. New interpretation of the musical I remembered a long time ago [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif[/img].

Dear Management,
A less than expected dining experience was realized last night, Wednesday 12/29, and I'd like to give you the details. Reservations were recorded under Hall, 4 party for 6PM, my wife and I arrived at 5:50 and our guests at 6:15. We were seated in the front right bay window area (as you look onto Thames Street) which was rather cramped and cold from the drafty window. Our server was Jackie, known only by her name printed on the dinner receipt as it was not offered during service. Pleasant and attentive but forgetful as one drink order was forgotten and the second was served incorrectly. After studying our menus and starting to order, Jackie informs us that several items are unavailable and some specials are featured this evening which slightly delayed the ordering process. It would have been nice to have had that information when the menus were first handed out. It also was difficult to obtain descriptions of the dishes from her and no information was offered as to what would accompany each presentation,eg. I ordered the special, Daurade medallions with sliced lobster served with a clementine sauce. The three medallions were served over pureed potatoes and had I known this I would not have ordered the rosemary and garlic side potatoes which were tasteless and bland. The Daurade special was overcooked, tough and very fishy tasting, the lobster overcooked and leather like. The Kali's house salad contained mushy and mealy tomatoes. My meal was totally unacceptable and poorly made. The anchovy salad, ordered by our guest, was also unacceptable completely overdone with multiple anchovies, it was not eaten. To be fair, though, all appetizers were wonderful and expertly prepared and the salmon, sword fish and shrimp main courses were equally excellent. One issue which was very troubling was, although we informed our server 3 times that we were pressed for time due to a theater engagement, she disappeared several times for a longer than acceptable period of time and finally when she returned with what I thought was the check, it turned out to be the dessert offering. We politely declined and asked again for the check which took an additional 15 minutes to receive and process. The dinner by no means was a disaster but it was less than perfect given your advertisement which states "Specializing in Impeccable Seafood" and your pricing. Thank you for your attention to this email and I respectfully request a response.

Drew Hall
Belair, Maryland




[This message has been edited by Drew (edited 12-30-2004).]