Tag Archives: bad service

il Buco

5 Sep

One problem with having a destination wedding at the end of a school year is that sometimes some of your favorite people just can’t make it. Such was the case of my cousins (technically, my dad’s cousins, but we’re all just one big… really big… happy family).  So upon arriving back in NYC, they offered to take us out to a meal.  And that is how we found ourselves at il Buco.

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I know I had heard many people speak highly of il Buco, but it just somehow never made it on the list of places to go.  I was very glad that my cousins changed that.

The decoration inside is like an eclectic French country farm house that got taken over by a whimsical decorator who enjoyed making lamps  look like octopus with tea pots on the end.

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(Apologies in advance for the dark photos.  Turns out, octopus tea kettle lamps do not bring in as much light as my camera would prefer.)

 

We split a whole bunch of apps.

We started with the special bread and olive oil and the dish of olives.  Both were really way above average.  The olive oil had an amazing grassy/woody flavor and the bread was a great combination of crispy crust with fluffy interior. And the olives were probably the best I’ve ever had. Really flavorful.

For plated apps, we tried the Ricotta, which was house made ricotta with Battenkill Farm milk, stonefruit, fennel, hazelnuts, and Catskill honey. I loved the way the honey balanced the stonefruit which balanced the cheese.  And the fennel really worked with this dish to further balance out the flavors.

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We also split the Insalata di Zucchini with shaved Bodhitree Farm’s summer squash, purslane, toasted almonds, pecorino Sarde, and mint.  Fresh and delicious.  Loved the mint and toasted almonds complimenting the squash. (This made me want to add mint to all my salads)

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FourSquare tips mentioned enjoying the Cavolonero which was Tuscan black kale, garlic-anchovy-lemon vinaigrette, filone croutons, and parmigiano reggiano.  Awesome.  I am usually only a fan of kale when it’s roasted, but this was in its raw form and it was just brought to life with the vinaigrette and the cheese.

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We each got our own entrees, but we certainly passed them around for sampling.

One person got the fish.  This was perfectly cooked.

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Someone else got the macaroni. I couldn’t try it due to peppers, but she really enjoyed her dish (as did everyone else that tried it).

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Mike got the Porchetta with Flying Pigs Farms heritage pork, Umbrian lentils, swiss chard, and grain mustard. I think it also had some chicharones.  The pork itself was packed with flavor and had great pieces of fatty meat with a good sear.  The potatoes were also crispy and well seasoned.

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I got the Papparadelle which was house made egg pasta ribbons and green and yellow summer squash. I loved loved loved this dish.  It tasted like summer. Fresh and light but totally satisfying. It seemed too simple: Pasta, squash, cheese.  But it all came together in a really nice, full flavor.

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One highlight of the night was letting my cousin order the wines.  Boy was this a treat!  We tried a few superstars including this gem from 1986.

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Pretty sure this is the oldest bottle of wine I’ve ever had. And it was sooooo good.

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For dessert we tried a scoop of chocolate and a scoop of caramel gelato. These had such intense, wonderful flavors.  That chocolate was packed with flavor.  Wow.

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We also got the Torta di Cioccolato which was flourless chocolate cake, espresso caramel mousse, and candied walnuts. This was so rich and so chocolatey. Reminded me of the desserts my great grandmother made from Europe.

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I orered the Panna Cotta all’ Aceto Balsamico which was described as “cooked cream” drizzled with 10-year balsamic vinegar.  The panna cotta itself was really flavorful, but the balsamic really put it over the top. It was rich and sweet and had just enough tang to balance the cream.

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This was a fantastic meal, start to finish.  All the food tasted incredibly special, unique, and really above the norm.  I was not expecting to enjoy this meal as much as I did, but now I see why people absolutely love this place.

There was, however, one issue…

The service.

Our waitress made it feel like we were inconveniencing her by simply being there.  As if her job was slave labor and we were there to enforce her brutality. She actually rolled her eyes, on multiple occasions when we asked questions or asked for refills like water or bread.  At one point we asked for the sommelier to come over so we could have wine… with our dinner… novel concept I know. She rolled her eyes, again, and then proceeded to not send him over and finally sent a busser (I think) to take the order instead. This was after we were almost all the way through our dinner. She came over to tell us that the sommelier had been busy, as if we had asked if she could please bring over the President of the United States.  I thought maybe she was coming to say “Sorry he is busy and we didn’t get you wine for your dinners.” Not even close.

It was one of the most ridiculous services I’ve ever seen.

It certainly shouldn’t have happened. It really sours an excellent meal when the person whose job it is to be your waitress makes you feel like you are torturing her.

It’s a shame, because despite the service, this restaurant was damn near flawless.

Nom Points: 7.5 out of 10 (One full point deduction for the awful service)

Total Nom Points: 7.5 out of 10

A**holes at Esca

14 Aug

 

I live right near Esca, and being the Batali and Bastianich fan that I am, I was surprised at myself that I hadn’t been in a while. I had been once, years ago, on a work lunch, but had never been back since.

And now… I will never go again.

I worked in restaurants a few times over my life, and because of that I have a lot of empathy for people that do that job and I’m a chronic over-tipper because I know how underpaid restaurant staff is for the amount of shit they have to put up with.

But there is no excuse for treating customers the way we were treated.

We walked into the restaurant pretty late on a Saturday night.  It was well past peak hours (though not near closing time), and we had eaten a very late and large lunch. We were looking for a bite, maybe some oysters and cocktails. We would have been happy sitting at a bar, and knew that if Esca couldn’t take us, we’d just go elsewhere.

We should have known immediately from the hostess that this was not going to be a good experience.  We walked in and noticed that the restaurant was less than half full. We asked the hostess for a table for 3. She looked at us as if we had asked her if she likes to eat dog poop.  She wrinkled her nose and said she didn’t think she could seat us.  Well okay then… plenty of fish in the sea. We would find another place. “Wait…” she said. “I think I can find space for you. Let me see.”

We waited a few minutes and she came over to tell us she could seat us, and made it sound like it was about as much of an inconvenience as it possibly could be.

We sat (surrounded by empty tables, mind you). And sat. And sat.  We asked for menus twice from bussers.  We finally got some about 20 minutes after sitting.  Within moments of sitting, our waiter was there to take our order. We asked him for a few minutes.  When he came back, we ordered drinks.

It took a good long time to get our drinks, so in the meantime, the waiter came up to take our order.

“We’ll have one dozen oysters please” said we.

“And?” snarled the personification of snootiness.

“That is all.”

“That’s it?”

“Yes.”

“Hold on.”

We held… and soon a manager came up to us and informed us that we had to order a minimum to sit at a table. I explained that we were only there for a quick bite and drinks, and that it said in no location that there was any kind of minimum.

The manager shrugged and said that was the rule.

While I was inclined to leave on the spot in a huff, our drinks were already on their way and it was late. And frankly, I was feeling pretty lazy. I figured we would suck it up and order some stuff to satisfy their demands. We added a few things to our order and when we asked if that was sufficient, the waiter rolled his eyes at us. HE ROLLED HIS EYES AT US.  He said he thought it would be okay.

We waited a good amount of time for our drinks and oysters, but finally, they came out.  They were actually quite good. Nice and briny. 

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And then we waited. And waited.

A long, long time later, the crudo came out.  I will take this moment to remind you that crudo is RAW. 

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All the crudo was very good. And impressively, they managed to not get peppers in any of it. (Thank goodness for small favors?)

We especially liked the brill and mackerel crudos, but my favorite was the mahi mahi with almonds.

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And then… we got a lemon.

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And this lemon sat there.

And sat there. 

And sat there.

A full 40 minutes that lemon sat, all alone, on the table.  Finally, our food showed up.  

First came the Fritti, which was crispy cornmeal crusted halibut cheeks, Louisiana shrimp and vadalia onions. This was pretty unremarkable, but not bad.

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And we had the monkfish. I wrote down that it was “great.” “Perfect flavors.”

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We were then given some petit fours. Nothing super.

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At the very end of the night, we looked at our watches and noticed we had been there for over 2 and a half hours.  Absolutely ridiculous.  We also walked out of there spending about 4x what we came in meaning to spend, due to the “minimum” rules.

We opened up the bill and noticed that the bottle of wine was not charged. When the server came back in a rush, we asked if the wine was taken off, and he said “yes yes” before the question even came out of my mouth. I’m not sure if he actually even heard me. And if the wine was taken off, perhaps that was part of an apology from the manager for how bad the service was? If so, why didn’t he come over and say something? I have a feeling it was a mistake and the waiter couldn’t be bothered to actually listen to my question. So we paid our bill and were on our merry way.

I want to empathize with them, I really do. But this was absolutely unacceptable service.  The rudeness, the wait times, the obvious neglect for our table. It’s not like we came in looking like bums (though that shouldn’t matter either), but even our water glasses went empty for long periods of time.  I know that some places require minimums, but if that is the case, it should be printed on the menu. Period. 

I have to imagine that if Batali actually knew what was going on in this restaurant, he’d slap a few people. I only say that because I want to hold Batali in a little bit of revery as I have to date.  I want to assume this is something he would never stand for.

And I won’t stand for it either.

Congrats, Esca. I spend tens of thousands of dollars on dining with clients and I will never be coming back to your establishment. And I live next door and drop a good amount of my salary on eating out.  You have lost a customer. A good one.

But every customer should matter. Period.

Total Nom Points: 3 out of 10 (and only because the food was pretty good)