Cameron's American Bistro — Restaurant in Sharon Township

Is There Reason Enough to Return?

Dinner, February 22, 6:00, party of 6. Food: B- Service: C+

First off, we are long time fans of Cameron Mitchell Restaurants. When dining in Central Ohio, we hold other restaurants to the service standards of Cameron Mitchell Restaurants. This restaurant has been a favorite of ours since it opened. Perhaps it was my high expectations of returning to Cameron's after the remodeling that led to the disappointing evening. Or, maybe the staff had an off-night.

Top marks for having the sparkling wine we requested at the table as directed. You would be surprised how many restaurants don't get that correct. Pleasant greeting all around, hostess staff and server. Food. My husband and I ordered the calamari appetizer to share. The calamari was tender, nicely breaded, but kind of boring as it was served with a tarter sauce of some kind. It didn't do much for the dish overall. Would not order again. We each ordered the goat cheese salad. It was good. Not as good as the previous version that used to be on the menu. The dressing was rather separated and didn't bring the salad together. I ordered the crab cake appetizer as my entrée while my husband ordered Cameron's Walleye. Here is where the evening went down hill. We ordered Nickel & Nickel chardonnay which was promptly brought to our table and placed in the standing ice bucket. The food arrived for the entire table. The wine was still in the ice bucket unopened. None of the other diners had received their wine either. We looked around for assistance. After a few minutes, the server came over, and stated that she had to first open a bottle of wine for another table, and would be back to open ours and to gather the wine from the bar for the others. We had food on our table, the wine had not been presented, and we were in second in line. No one else offered to assist. This is not the high standard of Cameron Mitchell restaurants. But wait, it gets worse. My crab cake was served cold. Kelly, the GM came by and noticed that I had set it aside. She offered to get another crab cake. I waited, and waited. The others had finished their entrees when someone else brought my replacement crab cake. I declined it since everyone else was done. After much insistence from this staff person, I agreed to take it home with me. Not knowing how well it would reheat, but this gentleman said it would just be wasted and thought it best I take it to-go. I was told the bill would be adjusted, but it was not. My husband's walleye was good, but a bit over-seasoned. No comments on the other diner's entrees. The server offered complimentary dessert. Thank you. But the service had quickly spun out of control. GM Kelly attempted to make things better, even brought the printed recipe to the table upon request of another diner who is a fan of the crab cake. After waiting for the checks to arrive, we chose not to dispute the error in the bill. Disappointment in the food and the service. Not sure if the menu holds enough intrigue to bring us back, but we are hoping this was an off-night and the normal Cameron's standards...

I'll admit that my wife and I went here solely because we had a buy one entree, get one free coupon. Hey, expensive restaurants rarely give out offers like this, so we decided that we weren't going to let this offer pass us by (and judging from the number of reservations, we were far from the only ones...)

I was first shocked at how packed the dining room is...chairs are so close together, that you're pretty much a part of the table next to you. I expect this out of a chain restaurant, or a cheap diner, but when I'm paying upwards of $100 for a dinner for two, I kind of want a little privacy. I also thought the decor was rather boring.

For an appetizer, we got the fried calamari. Honestly, I've never had calamari before, but it was pretty good. It did get old toward the end (they give you a lot for the money), but the tartar dipping sauce is also tasty. For my entree, I got the "braised beef short rib", which sounded really good, and filling. In layman's terms, I learned that translates to "pot roast", which I hate. It was a relatively small piece, and it tasted like every pot roast I've ever had. For $28? No thanks.

My wife got my second choice: Frutti del Mare, which is a seafood pasta. I'll admit that was our fault for overlooking it, because it clearly says so on the menu, but the sauce is a tomato-y, red sauce, and the noodles are slightly thicker than, but otherwise highly reminiscent of, spaghetti noodles. So it's basically a seafood spaghetti, which is every bit as disgusting as it sounds. I hate to be an armchair restauranteur, and I know that Cameron Mitchell restaurants like to make their own unique twists (and usually they're quite good), but everyone knows you need a cream-based sauce with seafood pasta! This "twist" just didn't work for me. For dessert, we had the creme brulee, which also tasted pretty much like every other creme brulee I've ever had, though in this case, that's a compliment. It was very delicious, rich, and creamy.

One of the main high points is that the service was what you would expect from a restaurant like this. I didn't catch our waitress's name, but she was on top of every empty cup, and made a point to check in on us at all the right times. In other words, she was fantastic.

We did go "all out" and get an appetizer and dessert, but even with the coupon, including tax and tip, we spent close to $100. I love going to high-end places like this, but I honestly could have spent a fraction of that and been much more satisfied elsewhere. While this doesn't really make me think any less of Cameron Mitchell restaurants as a whole (I loved M, and will still check out his other ones when given a chance), this was a hugely...

We ate here on Valentine's Day so it was obviously busy. I was set to have their fried chicken until the server told me about the lobster ravioli special. I hesitate to get seafood with cream sauce because it is often made with tarragon, which I have a strong aversion to, so I asked about it before I ordered and was assured by our server that it had "NO tarragon!". Well a few bites in, I knew it contained tarragon. With it being a busy holiday, I did not want to send it back - it was edible, but I didn't really enjoy it. When the server came back and noticed I hadn't eaten much, I told her that I believed it contained tarragon and asked her if she could ask the chef. When she returned to the table and confirmed that it did indeed contain tarragon, she apologized, but didn't offer any compensation. It's always disappointing to go out for a special occasion and spend a large amount of money for a meal you don't really enjoy- especially when it was preventable by the server either being more knowledgeable about the food, or just simply taking the time to ask ahead of time. I tend to expect more from a Cameron Mitchell restaurant, but it was a holiday so hopefully it was just...