COMFORT by the Cross-Eyed Cricket — Restaurant in Evansville

A shocking experience... and not in a good way. We had reservations with another couple for dinner, and as I usually do, I looked over the menu before we went. My expectations were high. Quite the diverse menu, from chicken and dumplings to Filet Mignon. The steaks were all priced MARKET, which sets my expectations above average. I usually see that as a sign of quality meats and therefore a quality final product. We arrived at dinnertime to a mostly empty restaurant, which should have been a warning since the area around the location was packed. There was a slight sewer smell inside, which can be partially forgiven due to the age of the building. We ordered the crispy Brussel sprouts and fried pickles as appetizers. Both were excellent. The homemade rolls came at the same time, served with strawberry butter. The rolls were very heavy and dense, which seemed an odd pairing with something as light as strawberry butter. Soon after my entree arrived, the Kabuki Steak. This dish is billed as Filet Mignon, teriyaki, fried cabbage, rice with corn, and onions and mushrooms. This was the first steak dish I've ordered anywhere where I wasn't asked how I would like it cooked, which I thought was odd. When it came, the Filet was pre-cut into small chunks, cooked well done, and soaked in a pre-prepared teriyaki glaze that was too salty, even for my taste. It's an insult to Filet mignon to cook it well done, let alone cut it before serving to the customer. Any tenderness or natural juices were long gone from that dish. The fried cabbage was acceptable, albeit slightly salty. The rice was a take on fried rice with chunks of scrambled egg, corn, and what appeared to be lima beans? Odd combination to be sure. The rice reminded me of instant rice that had been fried. It was soggy, mushy, and had a salty overtone that was slightly disconcerting. At $35, I'd have expected a Filet, glazed with teriyaki, and cooked to order. The pre-cut and well done temp was an immediate one-star for me. My wife ordered the fried chicken, mashed taters, and green beans. She said the green beans were very good. Smoky, little salty, and cooked well. Her chicken was slightly overcooked, but she said it was average, but slightly bland. Our dinner guests ordered the chicken fried chicken, which was reported to be very good, and the chicken and dumplings. When the chicken and dumplings arrived at the table, they caught my eye immediately. The broth was a very recognizable shade of bright yellow with a familiar sheen to it. The chicken, while cooked, was almost perfectly square and pink. As she ate, she stopped and said it tasted odd. So we tried some. Immediately, it brought back memories of Sweet Sue canned chicken and dumplings. The dumplings were bodyless, the broth had that unmistakable canned, slightly artificial flavor and mouth feel, and the chicken was the canned variety. It's a slap in the face to customers to serve them canned chicken and dumplings at $14 or whatever is was and pass it off as homemade. It was clearly not made in house. Customers are not that stupid. It pains me to write a negative review of a local business, but judging by the lack of patronage, I'm guessing everyone else already knew all this. It's disappointing. It's a beautiful building, great location. They need to take their food more seriously. One of the people who brought our entrees to the table was wearing a jacket that had "Chef (whatever his name was)" embroidered on it. Surely they don't have an actual chef putting out that level of food. If they do, that's even more disappointing. There was no passion, no love for the ingredients or the art of cooking in those dishes. Truly a disappointing experience. Rarely would I add a restaurant onto my "Do NOT Recommend" list. Unfortunately, this one goes near the top. Should they take themselves seriously in the future, I'd be happy to give them another chance, but at their...

My husband and I have been here before, so we decided to treat his company to dinner last night. The place is beautiful, but it's a bit deceiving. We had 13-14 ppl for 6pm on a Wednesday! Since my husband was hosting for his employees, we got there around 5:40. Our server was Ashley and she was nice, but couldn't keep up by herself and it took so much time for every drink refill/bar reorder. The chef made his way to our table to talk to my husband about our party. He told the chef there were some that wanted to try the Tomahawk steak and the chef assured him that he would take care of us. He came out 3 times to speak to my husband and to reiterate how he was ready to take care of us. We ordered appetizers of wings, fried pickles, fried green tomatoes, and bacon brussels. The appetizers made it out fine and were good/fresh. AFTER the appetizers our waitress came to our table to apologize for not having Tomahawk steaks for the guys who ordered one. REALLY? Why did the head chef tell us he would accommodate us, especially when we asked for specific items?!? My husband asked to speak to the chef again. He came out & said he only had 5 for the dinner rush, in total...lol So pointless to even come talk to us in the first place. People in our party believed he was intoxicated?? I ordered a medium-rare bone-in ribeye. As the food started to finally make it's way out, they were auctioning each plate...(know your seating & pivot points ppl..) Three of us were left without orders and waited about 5 minutes. Two more plates were brought out and 2 people didn't get the correct side items. Guess who still didn't get their food? Yep, me! The only medium-rare steak.. It took about 8 mins (13 minutes total for just me) and my order finally arrived. HOWEVER, it wasn't a bone-in and was steaming in liquid causing it to upcook to about medium-well. A $50 steak and it was about 70% fat! I had to send it back and it was now, after 8pm & they close at 9. A little lady brought my order out on a huge wood board, apologizing. She was honestly very embarrassed and she turned out to be the manager. So, after all the massive confusion, people not receiving correct orders, and 3 of us waiting for our orders, she finally comes to speak to our party?? This steak was huge & finally had a bone in it, BUT it was about med/med-well. It had great flavor though and everyone was already done eating at this point, so I just didn't say anything else. The manager apologized continuously, but people were not happy with the food or service. The floors were so greasy, I almost fell going to the bathroom. They definitely need to retrain their staff and get PARKING! We won't be back.. This review does not truly express the mess we endured! Be careful about coming here and get there early. If you want medium-rare order rare and don't have your mind made up about what you want because it doesn't matter here..It's obviously management and poor training for the staff we...

We'd heard really good things about the place. We were unimpressed, underwhelmed, and disappointed. We arrived at around 7:15PM on a Saturday night with no reservation, but were seated immediately. It was obvious from the start that our server (Jared) was either overloaded or inattentive, though he got our drink order right away. It took at least 15 minutes to get 2 glasses of ice tea because as Jared stated they "had to go next door to get ice". At no point did he come back to the table until after they got the ice. Then we got our drinks and were asked if we were ready to order. We were, we'd had more than enough time to decide. We ordered the crab stuffed mushrooms. And away he went without waiting to see if we had decided on our entrees or even asking if we still needed a minute. Once again he disappeared until 5 minutes after the appetizer arrived by another server who did not bring any side plates, though he warned us the skillet was extremely hot (it was, the skillet was obviously sizzling). Jared had walked past our table multiple times and never offered us side plates as we were waiting for the skillet to be manageable. The portion size was disappointing, mushrooms were small. They tasted burnt thanks to the skillet (yes, that's how hot that skillet really was). Not worth the $15 price tag. Wife ordered a side salad which is a lot of iceberg lettuce with 4 tiny tomatoes, 3 cucumber slices, shredded cheese, and red cabbage. Some of the lettuce was wilted and oxidated. We ordered shrimp and grits and fried chicken (white meat only) entrees. Wife ordered an old fashioned which took some time to arrive but was very well made. Food was dropped off.by another server with a "how does it look" tossed back over the shoulder as they walked away quickly. Normally i take photos of the food because how delicious it looks. Not this time, not the most appealing looking food. Chicken was either overcooked or using old burnt oil. Chicken was moist inside but crispy outside was dark and tasted slightly burnt. Shrimp and grits was overloaded in "gravy". Manager stopped and asked my wife if she was enjoying her shrimp and grits. My wife said not really because the gravy overpowered all other flavors. Managers response was "I'm from New Orleans, so I know shrimp and grits and this is not it. I told them not to put this on the menu." I was a restaurant manager in various styles of restaurants (French bakery, southwest grill, woodfired oven, and steakhouse) for over 13 years. I would NEVER have made a disparaging statement like that about the food to a guest. Jared was good at refills and getting us our bill. When we went to leave, the place was now mostly empty and we used the restrooms. The men's room towel dispenser was empty and the hand dryer literally only runs start to finish for 3 seconds. It might need some maintenance. I rarely say this but we would have had a better experience going to Dennys. I can't recommend this...