Have been a hater re CU. Everyone seems to rave, but the one time we tried: slow, bad service, only meh food.
Tonight we were going to the Globe (Some Lovers, the new Burt Bacharach/Steven Sater musical - definitely worth seeing). They advised us that parking is terrible this time of year, so we only wanted to park once before dinner and not try to repark before show. That left us with Banker's Hill restaurants as our choice.
Hexagon: meh
Avenue 5: lost its luster
Was planning to go to Barrio Star, but didn't feel 100% today and wasn't sure a tofu bowl was the best thing for me.
We decided to give CU a try, sitting at the bar as walk-ins.
I'm a believer!
What was nice this time:
--got seated quickly at the bar, not a madhouse like last time when we actually had a reservation and still it took forever for them to seat us.
--great waitress at the bar, great service
--enjoyed my temperanillo
--CH's beets and ricotta salad was tasty
--foraged mushroom pizza was fantastic: would return just for that
Cons:
--the pricing still doesn't seem quite right to me. I could get a whole bottle of wine for $18, but I never drink more than 2 glasses, and CH doesn't drink wine. But if I only want a glass, it costs me $10. Then I feel silly ordering a second glass when I could have had a whole bottle. If they are going to price the bottles so reasonably, why rip off people drinking by the glass?
--they shouldn't charge to bring a basket of bread
--there should be some more reasonable appetizers or small salads - everything is "family style" but CH and I don't like the same things so it gets expensive
--luckily I didn't order the kumbocha squash ravioli or the eggplant dish; the veg next to me at the bar said the first was great "if you like balsamic" (in my ravioli? hmmm.....glad I didn't order that one), and said she wouldn't recommend the eggplant, which she said was a new menu item
Still, my meal was delicious, so I'd go back. CH wasn't so enthusiastic, though. Let's see if we end up there again!
(oh, and we had a fantastic meal at Savory recently too - or at least I thought so and CH was less enthusiastic - but I have lots of things to do before I have time to post about it!)
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Glad you liked it more this time. We always have fun there. We usually go with friends and order a really amazing bottle of something. I wonder if the bottle/glass differential has to do with the wine store in restaurant concept. If you buy a glass then you pay bar prices, because they have to maintain the open inventory, etc. Or it could be they are just penalizing the abstemious. Isn't that the American way? Shame on you for only wanting a glass! :-)
ReplyDeleteHa! Shame on me I guess!
ReplyDelete