Purveyor — Restaurant in Huntsville

My bf and I had a table booked on a Saturday night, and our overall experience was unfortunately subpar.

For appetizers we ordered the Crab Springroll and the Tomato Crusted Burrata. Neither of the dishes stood out:

Crab Springrolls — I don’t recall tasted actual chunks of crab meats in my mouth, I think they were blended but honestly not much better than the ones that you can just get from the frozen aisles.

Tomato crusted Burrata — lol, I was so confused by this dish bc in my mind it’s Burrata cheese served with pan fried tomatoes slices, hence the crust. But nope! Tomato was not in sight at all but a ball of carnival-fried-dough looking thing being placed on top of two slices of zucchini 😭 when I finally asked the waiter about it, he said that it was tomato infused tempera dough that’s being fried with Burrata cheese inside! When we cut into it, the texture of Burrata was inconsistent—watery inside and chewy outside—and the dough tasted exactly like funnel cake…could not tasted the tomato at all and zucchini had no seasoning. It was a very awkward and counterintuitive dish.

We must have waited for our entrees for at least 40 minutes since we finished our appetizers. They did apologize for the delay and gave us two glasses of champagne on the house. However, the quality of the entrees didn’t quite live up to the prolonged anticipation:

Burger — bf complained that the patty was dry and that the burger was too tall to get a good bite. It also came with a side of fried Mac n cheese, but it was really nothing special about it and kinda over cooked.

Rack of lambs — my lambs were okay. I did like how they were cooked two ways, but it had too much fat surrounding the actual meat. It was really only 4 chunks worth of lean meat in total

Side of gnocchi (that was on the seasonal menu) — it was decent in terms in taste and texture, but still not blown away by it in any way

We did like the service provided by the staff but that was about it. I would suggest revising the menu a bit to make it more descriptive/ accurate and less confusing for the customers. If there is some sort of situation within the kitchen, I highly recommend keeping the customers updated with what’s going on. For the amount of time that we waited and the quality of the entrees, we felt as though the overall experience did not worth what we had paid for the meal ($200+) and would much rather have one of the dishes on the house instead of getting two glasses of free champagne. Also inside the restaurant is really loud and dim just fyi on the vibes of the place. I’m kinda upset by the experience since the locals spoke so highly of the place online. Unfortunately we will not be returning to the establishment, best of luck.

Oh, the cocktails were good, probably the only items that we ordered that we had no complaints about, shoutout to...

We made reservations for an early dinner, we arrived even earlier but had no trouble getting a seat. The initial reception was warm and inviting, and though our seating was a low and diminutive table (I'm a bit of a curvier gentleman) the seating was comfortable.

We ordered drinks, you would imagine that a business operated by the Church Street Wine Shop would have excellent wine choices, and the menu did not disappoint. What you might not expect is the amazing bourbon selection. Really excellent, hard to find favorites that are difficult to come across in most casual dining scenarios.

As a warm up, a parmesan crusted bread with garlic and chive butter is served. It's fantastic. We chose roasted pork belly and corn bread as appetizers, and they did not disappoint. The cornbread was finished with sea salt and broiled to get a crispy, almost caramelized top which was phenomenal. The pork belly was ephemeral, roasted to perfection with very well rendered fatty sections that just held together to make the perfect bite.

We each had a different salad, a roasted beet salad and a watercress-dandelion affair. The beet salad sat on this blissful buttery sauce, I cannot describe it well but it was really great. The watercress-dandelion was crispy, alternatively spicy from the radishes, bitter from the dandelion, and sweet/sour from the dressing. Lovely.

For the entree, I had the short ribs. Wonderfully braised, for probably way longer than I'd have the patience for. Superbly seasoned and dressed well with a celeriac cream that perfectly cut through the richness of the ribs. My wife had the Angus filet, which was a glorious blessing. Lying on a bed of rich prosciutto sauce and accompanied by charred Hawaiian onions, this was an amazing plate!

For dessert, my wife had a 40 year port and the Mexican dome cake. Served with a smear of raspberry reduction of some type, this was a fantastic crescendo to a really spectacular meal.

I will add that the service was absolutely perfect, the wait staff made sure we were well cared for and I sincerely appreciate that!

Keep a table open for us, folks -...

The food was amazing, and the service was abysmal. Waited 45 minutes after being seated 15 minutes past our reservation time before the server even greeted us. No "sorry for the long wait" or any kind of explanation. We were celebrating our anniversary, and she was made aware of this after asking if we were celebrating anything. She was very attentive to her other three tables. Waited 30 minutes for sweet tea after she took our food order. It came not long before the food did. My significant other, and I just had no drink after we finished our alcoholic beverages from the bar top for about 50 minutes while we waited. She was not the one who brought the food out or checked on us until she wanted to see if we wanted desserts so she could make her add-ons look better for the night. I was clearly not amused, as I have worked in the food industry as a server for almost 5 years now. Visibly irritated, the manager looked over at us and our very empty table many times, obviously noticing we were looking for something. Which was our missing drinks and MIA server. Not once did he come over to see if things were okay. He just stood at the bartop, looking around clueless. What's the point in a manager who doesn't manage or check on guests? We sat at the bar before getting our table, and the bartender was so sweet and attentive and gave us amazing recommendations on drinks. I wish we had just stayed at the bar top. We spent $180, and our anniversary dinner experience was quite awful. This was supposed to be a great night out for us. Not sure if we weren't valid customers because we don't wear designer clothes and have nice looking jewlery but we were fully prepared to leave a generous tip if our server wouldn't have treated us like we didn't exist. At least the purple potatoes were good... Steer clear of this "casually dressed" dining experience if you look middleclass. Because you probably won't be treated like a guest but more...