Cattle Shed — Restaurant in Milton

First let me say that I love Nick, assuming the owner or manager. We know him from VG's! Friend invited me here for happy hour, so 3 total. Here is why I rated as I did: 3 stars for food: my friend L sent back her pork belly. She said it tasted like "biting the pig itself", like a very gamey flavor. I did not care for my shrimp cocktail. It had an odd texture and the shrimp were medium sized. I just expected them to be jumbo like most upscale steak places. Just looked up the menu again, and I remember that I looked at the menu before I went, thus I had that impression: the picture does show it presented in a martini-type glass w/the shrimp hanging over the side and they look large. Mine came in a small bowl & they were laid on top of a bed of ice w/a lemon and cocktail sauce. Perhaps laying them directly on the ice changed the texture? I am glad that I only paid the HH price of $8 vs the normal $15. We both loved the Old Fashioned's and a great HH deal! I then tried the Italian wine flight and did not care for any of the 3. I really, really love wine and none of those were full-bodied, with that luscious, viscous mouthfeel that Italian bold reds normally have. But hey, it's wine and I drank it, but not worth $21. Then I got a Merlot and it was fine, but not great; again, not worth $15. Again, just lacking body and flavor. Based on all of that, I asked if I could taste the Wagyu Bolognese sauce and it was PHENOMENAL, thus I ordered that pasta. I can't remember the type of pasta, but it wasn't pappardelle which is the most common, but I am glad that I asked for it to be cooked more than al dente because it was just barely. I did eat it all as it was delicious! My friend like her meatballs and bruschetta. She didn't care for her Sangria as it had a floral note. I tasted it and it did...???...Service 4: Laney was nice & helpful, though she did come by our table a LOT. I know that seems funny to say, but it was kind of interrupting as we had mentioned that we would be there a while and were being leisurely - we went at 4. Atmosphere: 2 - reason being is that they have an OPEN bar window that folks can sit at from the outside...seems cool but SUPER annoying that we literally had to fight flying bugs the whole time we were there. I was afraid I was going to knock my cool wine flight holder down! M actually had a fly fly into her water glass! :( The bugs TOTALLY ruined the mood. Honestly - I would not come back during any warm season due to the bugs and I may not come back at all. Again, love Nick and hate to post this less than stellar review, however it is just too pricey of a place to not have it be better overall. Perhaps the steaks are where its at but if the wine isn't great, then that's a bust for me too. And I do know that since COVID, nothing is the same and perhaps this is just that, minus the bug-thing which is totally fixable. Laney did say that tons of customers complain about the bugs so it wasn't just us being picky. I am sure that that outside bar part gives more seats, but I am not sure that it is worth it. This isn't a Taqueria place like, Hola. This is an upscale dining place and bugs should not be part of the menu, free...

My boyfriend and I made reservations for the 4 course Valentine’s Day Dinner, and we were looking forward to this event weeks before. We had the $110 per person plus the additional $39 per person for the wine pairings. Upon arrival, we were placed at a table and received a very interesting server named Laura. She was very pleasant to start with and gave us a run down of how the courses went. We each immediately ordered a $15 cocktail. A few minutes later, a serving assistant came at us with our first course accompanied with our second wine pairing. I had explained to him that we didn’t receive our first wine, and he left the wine on the table. We received our first wine after with our second course and the cocktail that we had ordered 20 minutes prior. We had six drinks with two courses of food on our table at this point. We were clearly not even close to done with our first course since it was Valentine’s Day and we wanted to talk to each other for a little and not rush dinner. I was clearly upset with the food getting shoved down our throats and the server never apologized or acknowledged my feelings. Instead, she ranted and gave us a weird story about some friend and Waffle House, which left us very uncomfortable. Our main courses (we both ordered steaks) were sitting in the warmer for awhile and when we received them, they were cold. We still had our second courses and were immediately brought the steaks. After the cold steaks, they were out of two of the desserts. We ordered the desserts to-go since we honestly just wanted to leave. We also apparently had a time limit on our table, which was not discussed or apparent in the reservation booking. With the amount of money my boyfriend had spent on the dinner, I thought it was very inappropriate how there was a time limit. We got our check, and immediately went to the host stand to hopefully talk to a manager since we didn’t want to communicate with our server any longer. We got a manager, and I kindly informed him why I was upset with our dinner. Right away he told someone to give us a $75 gift card. I explained that although the gift card was a kind gesture, we would not be returning. There was no genuine apology or care to the matter. His total was $386.86, which was disgusting for the service we received and how we were treated. We will respectively not waste time and money on this...

Various ways to rate this restaurant. First off, my wife and I sat at the bar. Table service can be quite different than bar service, as the bartenders have to focus on serving beverages for the entire restaurant and provide food service at the bar. Your experience may be different sitting in the main dining. Drinks: 3.5/5 good use of unique ingredients even for standard cocktails (Old Fashioned, Aviation, etc.). The restaurant seems to use red wine floats for a variety of drinks, I saw at least three different drinks that were served this way. I had a NY Sour and El Diablo, while the taste was different, the red wine float did a disservice to these drinks. The Paper Plane was fantastic. Small Plates: 4/5 spicy mussels, next time would like to try the Beef Tartare or Grilled Octopus. Entrees/Steaks: 3.5/5 Gnocchi was excellent. Way 8 oz filet: I asked for the grade of this steak, and was told it was A5 (the highest grade for Waygu). I had it cooked medium as this is considered the best for Waygu. It did not taste like A5 grade. I ate Wagyu at many other steakhouses, this was the poorest version of Waygu. Desserts: was not offered to try a dessert (remember, bar service, although not an excuse). Other: 3.5/5 french fries were hot and crunchy, but lacked salt and tasted dry as if the they were not soaked to remove the starch before frying. Service: 2.5/5 Never refilled water, I had to ask for another drink, corollary to this is: if they had asked me if I would like anything else, I would have had 3rd or 4th cocktail. Did not clear "table" after we finished drinks or entrees. Did not ask if I would like dessert. Did not offer another bottle of Hildon water. Had to ask for the check. BTW, the number of people sitting at bar was 50%. Overall 3.5/5 I would probably go again and try different items, but this first impression (and the staff should assume everyone is there for the first time) was not good. Update: ordered a “double” cocktail and was charged 2x + $3 extra for their suggestion of a gin to make a gin gimlet, wait for it = $33. Typically bars charge 25-50% above base price...