Rosemary And Thyme — Restaurant in Sarasota

I feel like I should say that I was at Rosemary and Thyme with my father, who is a longtime, regular customer. They know him by name. He knows them by name. So that usually means you get “better” service than the “unwashed masses”…you know??

So if this was their “better” service….yikes.

Now let’s review the fact that I have owned and operated my own, independent restaurant for over a decade. I’ve worked in the restaurant industry for multiple decades. So I’m not just blowing smoke here. LOL

Place was half full out on the very large/roomy patio where we ate. Less than half full inside. So they should not have been overly “pressed.” IMO

Service was almost absent. As in it was difficult to get the staff to come back to our party of 9 for stuff like wine glasses so more than one person could drink wine or to, you know, take our orders for dinner. It was like, “Just give me some glasses and I’ll pour us all wine.”

Because I am ME, I reviewed the dinner menus online before I went. I don’t eat beef, pork or poultry so I like to get a lay of the land before going to a new restaurant. I also like to have a plan for what I might want to try. There were plenty of seafood offerings. There was even a cauliflower steak. So I was actually kind of excited to try their food.

While I was at Rosemary and Thyme (over two hours) and when I left last night all I could think was, “Meh.” So I slept on this review and here I am the day after. It’s still, “Meh.”

Food was tasty, well prepared, well seasoned, presented nicely. Portions were tiny. Like actually absurd, given the prices. Again, I know about restaurant pricing and I PAY a lot of money to dine out. However….

I ordered a Caesar Salad. It was good. It was also the size of a side salad, for $13.

I ordered the seared Halibut. It comes with a veggie choice (I got the asparagus) and carb (I got risotto). You also can choose a sauce to accompany your entree (Fun!). I chose Bernaise (it turned out be a very poor example of Bernaise with the consistency of water. Oh well). The entire plate was the size of what I would consider an appetizer. And by that I mean all three items together on that plate would have been a nice appetizer size. It was $50.

Which is actually STUPID.

The tableware is beautiful. Every little plate, delightful. But so what?

Absolutely not worth the price. You have to pay almost $100 to still be hungry…although the bread on the table was STELLAR. But, my friends, I do not dine out to have to fill up on the bread because the portions are tiny.

Setting is very nice. But, again, so what? This is a restaurant and we come to eat. When I dine out, as you might know, if you are a regular to this channel, I come hungry. Well, you will also leave hungry if you take that approach to Rosemary and Thyme. I mean unless you order double of everything?? Which I just can’t see as a legitimate...

I preface this review with an acknowledgement that restaurants are having crazy front of the house AND back of the house staffing issues. With that, I will definitely try this restaurant again, when the service industry normalizes a bit.

From the moment I read the extensive "prix fix" menu with lots of choices, I was looking forward to this meal. We were a party of 4. We were all equally satisfied with our appetizers. I had escargot which were fine, out of thier shell in a garlicky butter sauce. I tried a taste of my wife's Guinness battered mushrooms which were also good although the Guinness reduction sauce, thankfully ordered on the side, was just so-so. I also tried the calamari and realized I should have gone with that choice. The squid was tender and perfectly fried (I didn't try the George's sauce). Here's where things went downhill. First, full disclosure, we had a guest with very strict dietary requests which were honored but must've thrown some body for a loop because when it can time for our entrees, my wife's and my friend's meals came out first and our friend's meal was missing her duck! We asked and they acknowledged that it was coming, which it did eventually and eventually followed by the other two entress. Really not accustomed to piecemeal service like this in a "fine dining" establishment. My wife's salmon was good, as was our friend's duck albeit she was eating from two seperate plates. I ordered my filet "medium" and it was served practically 'mooing'. They took it back to the kitchen for a re-cook leaving me with my "frittes" which, silly me, I assumed would be hand cut, twice fried pommes frittes which is the traditional preparation. Otherwise, just call them French fries so these from a bag, frozen fries don't create false expectations! They recooked my filet which came back slightly north of medium but I figured at least I have my bernaise sauce (one of my favorite, classic sauces) to offset the delay and the over cook. If only. The reason bernaise is not a popular sauce anymore is that this hollandaise based, tarragon and shallot reduction sauce, is labor intensive and often not terribly stable throughout the course of service. So what many restaurants do is use a packaged product that's not even close to the real thing in terms of flavor. I asked my friend for his opinion and as he tasted I said "Knorrs, right?" the most popular short cut, powdered mix used. He said, "yeah, I can taste the powder". Full disclosure: my friend is a recently retired chef owner of a popular restaurant in the carribbean and I spent 25 years in fine dining so between the two of us our opinions come from many years of fine dining and fine service experience.

The owner was really nice, the staff were friendly and I was really impressed with the diversity of the front of the house staff. I look forward to giving them...

My wife and I went for dinner last night based on recommendations from two different friends. We were seated promptly by a friendly host, but away from one of the outdoor heaters (it was chilly last night). He happily moved us to a table closer to a heater after we asked. The wait staff was prompt, effective and friendly. All of them were very good. We really liked the ambience of the outdoor seating area and enjoyed the local musician who sang until 8:00. After that, however, things went sideways.

Our bread was barely warm, and then we shared the lobster-cargot appetizer, which neither one of us thought was particularly special, but OK. My wife ordered the seafood paella, which was also just OK. I was seriously disappointed in my filet Oscar. When the waiter asked me how I would like my steak, I said "pink and juicy." When he suggested medium, I said make it medium rare because, given his response, I thought I should err on the "red" side. When the entrée came the filet was barely pink and mostly grey, as in medium well. The Oscar topping was just OK.

I told the waiter about it and he offered another steak, but by that time I just wanted to eat as much of it as I could and be gone. If I hadn't paid $45 for the entrée I wouldn't have cared all that much, but I expected perfection or close to it at that price, AND based on our friends' recommendations. Our total bill was $153, which we happily pay if the food justifies it. "Just OK" is not what we expected. I was hoping that, unprompted, the restaurant might offer to eat that part of the bill. But no. I didn't feel like making a scene, so we just left.

In short, we decided we weren't impressed and wouldn't be back. But there was another plus: the beverages. My Manhattan was great, and so was the Malbec my...