t***@well.com
2003-12-26 05:17:42 UTC
Several weeks ago I sought suggestions for a Xmas Eve dinner at
formal, elegant, festive SF restaurant. The few messages in response
led me to the Carnelian Room... I want to thank those who took the
time to respond, and for what I have to say, I do not hold them
responsible in any way, but I wish I should have known better.
Formal, elegant, the CR certainly is. It is the largest restaurant in
which I can remember eating (all of the 52nd floor of the BofA
building) with a 3-4-tier hierarchy of service, wood-panneled,
heavily carpeted, thick linen, massive cutlery, the works. A view to
die for, all of SF at your feet in the glory of its twinkling lights.
All of which is admirable if only the food were edible.
We ordered from the prix fixe menu ($39 for appetizer, entrée, and
desert): the endive salad consisted of a few leaves of same,
two-count'em-two leaves of raddichio, two 1/4"x1/4"x2" strips of
gorgonzola, and a whisper of dressing on the bottom of the plate.
The scallop appetizer was ONE scallop and ONE raviolus of lobster.
The grouper entrée was a piece of overcooked, dry fish in a
non-descript meunière sauce. The braised short ribs were a mound of
stringy beef on a mound of mashies. The vegetables were tantamount to
raw (we could not bite through the carrots). For what it's worth, the
deserts were the only thing that we could consider as barely good.
In retrospect, I am beginning to wonder whether the entrées were not
simply prefabricated and microwaved as ordered.
I am willing to concede that $39 is not an exhorbitant price for a
meal in such a spectacular environment, and perhaps, perhaps, had we
ordered from the more expensive full menu, we might have had a decent
dinner, but I am certainly not going to ever cross CR's threshold to
find out.
À bon entendeur, salut...
T.
========================
Tony Roder, speaking his mind....
formal, elegant, festive SF restaurant. The few messages in response
led me to the Carnelian Room... I want to thank those who took the
time to respond, and for what I have to say, I do not hold them
responsible in any way, but I wish I should have known better.
Formal, elegant, the CR certainly is. It is the largest restaurant in
which I can remember eating (all of the 52nd floor of the BofA
building) with a 3-4-tier hierarchy of service, wood-panneled,
heavily carpeted, thick linen, massive cutlery, the works. A view to
die for, all of SF at your feet in the glory of its twinkling lights.
All of which is admirable if only the food were edible.
We ordered from the prix fixe menu ($39 for appetizer, entrée, and
desert): the endive salad consisted of a few leaves of same,
two-count'em-two leaves of raddichio, two 1/4"x1/4"x2" strips of
gorgonzola, and a whisper of dressing on the bottom of the plate.
The scallop appetizer was ONE scallop and ONE raviolus of lobster.
The grouper entrée was a piece of overcooked, dry fish in a
non-descript meunière sauce. The braised short ribs were a mound of
stringy beef on a mound of mashies. The vegetables were tantamount to
raw (we could not bite through the carrots). For what it's worth, the
deserts were the only thing that we could consider as barely good.
In retrospect, I am beginning to wonder whether the entrées were not
simply prefabricated and microwaved as ordered.
I am willing to concede that $39 is not an exhorbitant price for a
meal in such a spectacular environment, and perhaps, perhaps, had we
ordered from the more expensive full menu, we might have had a decent
dinner, but I am certainly not going to ever cross CR's threshold to
find out.
À bon entendeur, salut...
T.
========================
Tony Roder, speaking his mind....