When we arrived, the room we were sat in was HOT. There was a bussing tray that was sitting right there in the doorway near our table. We were placed at the first table right by the door, with our daughter in a highchair between our table and the next one.
Our waitress came by, took our drink and appetizer order, and answered our questions about the menu. There was a large group in that room that was towards the end of their meal, apparently all on their own checks. Our waitress went to give them their individual checks, take their cards, and take a picture of their group before we got our drinks. This would fine if it weren't for the fact that it took 20 minutes for our soda and iced tea to come to our table, and even longer for our appetizer. She walked in and out of the room 4-5 times during this payment process with this other group and instead of handing them their checks and saying she would grab their cards in a moment, she waited for them to dig their cards out of their purses. This would have been a perfect, appropriate time to bring our drinks instead of making us wait for so long just for our drinks.
When our appetizer, and later our meals, were brought out, the server bringing them out felt it was appropriate to pass/place the hot, heavy plates, one of which had a knife on it, OVER OUR BABY'S HEAD. We were sitting at a table for 4 with the baby on the side. At no point was it necessary to hold, hot, heavy plates and a knife over a baby. They could have very easily placed our plates from the other end of the table.
Almost immediately after our food arrived, before we even had a chance to taste anything, our waitress asked if everything looked ok then disappeared. We didn't see her, even in passing, for nearly 20 minutes. We kept watching out to see if she would walk by the door to the room we were in so we could flag her down for a bag and check but, while we saw many other waiters walk by several times each, we never saw her. We ended up flagging down another waitress to ask for a box and bag, then we heard her go to the kitchen, as if our waitress was in there, and tell her we wanted boxes and our check. While I don't like being asked how I'm doing every 5 minutes while eating, my waitress should at least not be completely MIA to the point where we need to ask someone else.
The food. It was ok - a little bit pricier than what I think the quality really called for, and not the best, but also not horrible. We had the fondue for our appetizer. It wasn't bad, but would be WAY better if it were served as a fondue with bread and/or veggies, as opposed to as a chips and queso deal (which is, to be fair, how it is advertised). My husband seemed to enjoy his steak and shrimp, although he was given 6 regular shrimp instead of the advertised 3 jumbo shrimp (with nothing being said about the change). I ordered the seasonal pasta - a butternut squash ravioli. It lists it as having a browned butter cream sauce, but my pasta, served in a large bowl, arrived looking more like soup. There was so much of this very liquidy sauce that I elected to take the pasta out of the bowl and use my tiny bread plate to eat the ravioli so I didn't have to worry about spilling the sauce with every bite. I would not have ordered this had I known it would be more...
Read moreExcellent food, ernest servers who try, beautiful surroundings, huge portions, very fair prices. Everything that should be a success. I'm not sure why it's not more popular than it is. Saturday night and the cafe is packed. The ice cream shop is packed. The restaurant is about a quarter full. I've been here several times for lunch, but it's only recently I've had reasons to have dinner here multiple times. The prime rib is excellent and available medium/rare to rare as well as more cooked. The fried chicken is different than expected, but very good. The gravy is excellent. I could have had them dump about four times as much on the mashed potatoes. Real haricot vert instead of fat green beans. The chicken breast was perfect both times I've had it. Niman ranch pork, although I've not gambled that they will cook it properly. So, to the real critique. The restaurant is exactly what you would expect for a Utah County fine dining restaurant made for the locals. No alcohol. It took several years before they added coffee. Big portions. Slightly overcooked fish. If you like your salmon cooked all the way through, this is the place. That's why I'm worried about the pork. If I ask for medium rare pork, that's what I want -- not cooked all the way. However, things like the braised short ribs and chicken were perfect. The vegetables are perfect al dente. The pasta was even slightly al dente. Service is ernest, not overly good. It's like having your niece try to be a fine dining server at a dinner party. Good try, but amateurish. I'd come here regularly if I could get a glass of wine, and that brings me to one reason why this place is probably not so busy. Next time you eat at a fine dining restaurant. Not Outback and similar. A real fine dining restaurant. Look at how many tables have wine on them. It will be over 50%. Often over 75%. Once you exclude 50-75% of all your likely diners, you will not be full on Saturday night. Even though Thanksgiving Point caters to families, and they love the cafe, There are no fine dining options in the North end of the Valley. This would be a destination for the entire...
Read moreQuite the experience and not at all good. Called in for reservation at 6:40 pm, a gentleman answered, we asked for a table he then said that will be 45 min which would be 7:25 pm by my watch, so we agreed. As he was about to hang up he said “we will have the table ready for you at 7:30” and hung up. My wife and I both looked at each other, that’s 50 min but what ever. When we got there we checked in and then sat there until 8:00 before being seated. We finally got to our table and ordered, we both agreed on the prime rib only to be told by our waitress that they were out of prime rib. We had to changed our order, my wife settled the meatloaf and I got the Halibut tacos, I also ordered the tomato basil soup and we jointly ordered the spinach artichoke dip appetizer with two diet cokes. The tomato basil soup was good, the appetizer was un edible. The dip came out in a crock, it was obviously hot at one point because the dip had spilled over the crock and onto the side of the dish but when we took the first bite it was less than lukewarm, it was not good so we pushed it aside assuming it was a one off type deal. Then the waitress, Jill was her name brought out my wife’s meatloaf, it was so over done that my wife tapped it with the side of her fork and it sounded like a thin sheet of plywood. We brought this to Jill’s attention and she nicely said, “I’m sorry, let me take it back and get you a new one.” Which she did. The replacement dish was cooked seemingly better but just wasn’t very good and my wife had a couple bites and couldn’t eat it. I ate my halibut tacos, they were good, A bit pricey but okay. When the bill came it was $80 and change for the two of us and with a 20% tip it came to $96.00. I wouldn’t recommend this restaurant and won’t eat there again. It’s over priced for the quality of food and although it didn’t seem overly busy, there were plenty of empty tables, the...
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