Bar Boutique — Restaurant in Ramsey

Drove by this place 250 times and never thought I’d end up there as I don’t often drink and clearly drinks are the main attraction here. I was looking for some high end dining late on a Friday and most restaurants nearby are closed. This popped on google and I decided to give it a chance as I’ve recognized it is a high end establishment which is my preference and I saw the small food menu section on a photo of a review. When I arrived I was shown the menu and noticed the items I saw were no longer available and was told the menu was recently changed. Asked for recommendations and ordered the shrimp and lobster cigars and potstickers. Potstickers were unavailable so ordered chorizo/cheese quesadillas. $23 and $20 respectively. I was equally blown away by how good they were as I was at how small the portions were. It was a baby sized quesadilla, and if it wasn’t amazing (I have high standards) I would have been disappointed. The cigars were a bit larger of a dish yet still underwhelming in size. I wasn’t much hungry when I went in just looking for a snack and easily could have eaten more. The establishment is very nice inside and the service is very good. The only thing I can complain about aside from the small portion size of the unbelievably delicious appetizers is the fact they charge a credit card service fee. We get it, bagel stores do it. We get it other places do it. When you are charging TOP DOLLAR (ex. $20 for a 2oz. (not joking) chorizo quesadilla) and drinks are $19… you are not supposed to be nickel and diming your customers. 3% cc service fee.. the establishment is supposed to eat that. It’s an expense. To charge TOP dollar then ADD the service fee is CRAZY. Would definitely go back but this would be a no question 5 star establishment if they upped the size of their apps by 25% and got rid of their service fee. Restaurants survive on repeat business especially in a small town...

So the place looks nice, but the service took a nose dive since our first visit... Tables so close together but hey, lets pretend we are in the city.

The good: Cocktails well made.

The not so good: The food left a lot to be desired. The dumplings were okay, pork quesadilla was good, the crab cakes were mostly shrimp, not just containing shrimp. Scroll down for our final dish where it went from a fair experience to a very poor experience.

The service was lacking, timing was off, food came before drinks and almost instantly which means premade or microwave...

The manager didn't care at all.

The REALLY bad: One dish we ordered was the "Prime Filet Mignon Bites" We received a few ounces of overcooked beef, with the reduction and tomatoes and a pile of frozen & cold greenbeans... We informed our waiter who took the dish and said that he would remove from the bill which he did. No offer to properly cook the dish, no attention from the manager following that incident. Who serves burnt beef and frozen green beans?

We did have 1 interaction from the manager who asked us to move our table to seat others. I asked if he had any feedback on the food quality when he walked away and told the waiting party they would have to wait for me to move... A little bit crazy in my opinion, not the glowing management that I read in responses from the owner. I did not place the table and he did not want to address the actual problem... I made eye contact with the waiting party and shifted for them to get in...

This was one of the worst dining experiences I have ever had. Thankfully on the ride home we stopped elsewhere where we had great food...

So disappointing! My fiancé and I couldn’t wait to check this spot out. We went this past Saturday night after a nice dinner out, we figured it would be the perfect way to end the night. We got seats at the end of the bar, perfect for a couple looking to enjoy a drink. We waited and we waited, with no acknowledgement from the bartender, a good ten minutes passed until she finally looked in our direction to say she’d be with us. I don’t mind waiting, I worked in a restaurant for many years of my life, however customer service/bar tending 101 is “Hi folks, I’ll be with you shortly.” - it’s just not that hard to do. When we were finally helped, I asked for an Appletini. Which we were told she could not make. Confused? So am I? We then decided to reluctantly order two espresso martinis. We asked for Baileys and we were told the bar did not carry it, but they did have “a more upscale tastier cream liquor”. Sure. It’s been 15 minutes or more now, there is no music, it stinks of candles they light in my yoga class and I just already know this drink isn’t going to be to my liking. The drinks were served and as expected - horrible. We took two sips, couldn’t stomach them, asked for the check and left $50 dollars in martinis behind to just get the heck out of there. Happy I got that out of my system. So many other better spots...