There are a few things I'm passionate about and food is one of them. What's worse than a pretentious restaurant is a pretentious restaurant that serves bad food to pretentious people with no taste buds. Unfortunately two third of them easily fall into that category.I don't ever recall a time when I left a restaurant thinking to myself the food was terrible but I really enjoyed the scenery. I'm a value shopper with principle and I like real food. I have no problem paying except there is no price low enough for bad food. Tonight we tried a restaurant in town called Carmon. Everyone says it's French but I can only say that even "French-inspired" would be a stretch. Just because they added a few French words on the menu and a few mirrors on the wall it doesn't make the food any more French than we are close to the Hall of Mirrors.
Everything was awful.
I had a bad vibe from the very beginning. The waiter was arrogant and ignorant. I was intrigued by the "sweet potato creme burlee" so I asked him how it's made, whether it's from a flavor extract or they some how used real sweet potatoes. First he started to explain what creme burlee is when I started to shake my head he proceeded to explain what a sweet potato is. WTF! He thought I didn't know what a sweet potato or creme brulee is? The waiter assured me that thee dessert contains no artificial flavors and that everything is made from real ingredients in house. Ok, how? I'm no expert but I've made enough creme brulee to know that it doesn't incorporate sweet potatoes! More on this later.
Getting no info on the dessert I decided to find out what else the waiter didn't know. After he introduced the daily special, seafood stew, I asked what kind of stock is the stew made from. The waiter hesitantly said "duck." WTF? Duck stock for fish stew? Ok, that's a bit of a stretch but who knows anything is possible with these "inventive" restaurants. Later one he came back to correct himself and informed me that the fish stew is indeed made from fish stock. I let him off the hook by not asking what exactly all went into the stock.
For appetizer I got veal sausage: a link smaller than the size of my thumb cut into two halves on top of potato puree and yellow leek shoots still trenched in wine. There was no spices in the sausage, only grind meat, which was ok since you can tell it's made of very good qualify veal. The leek and potato were nothing to write home about. Overall a very bland dish with no real substance.
The menu selection was limited. Since I rarely see trout offered anywhere so I was pretty excited to give it a try but it turned out to be the worst choice. I list a few names and he said oh, it's rainbow trout. I doubt there is a good place to get fresh trout around here and bad fish is just intolerable. The waiter looked confused when I asked him what kind of trout is served at the restaurant. After a named a couple varieties he said oh, it's rainbow trout. The fish came out in its entirety on an empty plate with no sides no nothing, just a overly salted fish. The fish was not deboned properly which made it difficult to eat. It was also not salmon colored like I had expected with steelhead. The whole thing was just awful, perhaps the worst fish I've ever had at a restaurant. Other people had the fish stew, which also turned out to be extremely over salted.
When it finally came time for dessert I said I'd order the sweet potato creme brulee only if the chief can come out and explain to me how it's made. I know it sounds a bit demanding but you really should know what the heck you're eating and paying for at a restaurant. The creme brulee came out in a typical ramekin with a film thin layer of caramelized powder sugar. The chief, although seemed a bit reserved, did explain to me that the dessert is made from real sweet potatoes by boiling it in milk and blending the puree into egg yolks. The whole thing is made without creme, which makes one wonder if it's even possible to called it a creme brulee especially without the sugar on top. This is basically a sweet potato custard. I know, who cares right? I do. I'm nuts and I don't ever plan to set foot in that place again.
For this kind of price I can have fresh fish in Lisbon that's carted out from the kitchen, properly deboned in front of me and then trenched in warm butter! Just simply good food. I remember the last time I had rainbow trout with Rose in Bariloche like it was yesterday. The fish was also a bit salty but the white creme leek sauce was amazing. We laughed our butt off joking that the cooks intentionally made our food salty just to see if we would break down to buy a drink at the restaurant. We never did. We don't like to pay for water when we travel.
Everything was awful.
I had a bad vibe from the very beginning. The waiter was arrogant and ignorant. I was intrigued by the "sweet potato creme burlee" so I asked him how it's made, whether it's from a flavor extract or they some how used real sweet potatoes. First he started to explain what creme burlee is when I started to shake my head he proceeded to explain what a sweet potato is. WTF! He thought I didn't know what a sweet potato or creme brulee is? The waiter assured me that thee dessert contains no artificial flavors and that everything is made from real ingredients in house. Ok, how? I'm no expert but I've made enough creme brulee to know that it doesn't incorporate sweet potatoes! More on this later.
Getting no info on the dessert I decided to find out what else the waiter didn't know. After he introduced the daily special, seafood stew, I asked what kind of stock is the stew made from. The waiter hesitantly said "duck." WTF? Duck stock for fish stew? Ok, that's a bit of a stretch but who knows anything is possible with these "inventive" restaurants. Later one he came back to correct himself and informed me that the fish stew is indeed made from fish stock. I let him off the hook by not asking what exactly all went into the stock.
For appetizer I got veal sausage: a link smaller than the size of my thumb cut into two halves on top of potato puree and yellow leek shoots still trenched in wine. There was no spices in the sausage, only grind meat, which was ok since you can tell it's made of very good qualify veal. The leek and potato were nothing to write home about. Overall a very bland dish with no real substance.
The menu selection was limited. Since I rarely see trout offered anywhere so I was pretty excited to give it a try but it turned out to be the worst choice. I list a few names and he said oh, it's rainbow trout. I doubt there is a good place to get fresh trout around here and bad fish is just intolerable. The waiter looked confused when I asked him what kind of trout is served at the restaurant. After a named a couple varieties he said oh, it's rainbow trout. The fish came out in its entirety on an empty plate with no sides no nothing, just a overly salted fish. The fish was not deboned properly which made it difficult to eat. It was also not salmon colored like I had expected with steelhead. The whole thing was just awful, perhaps the worst fish I've ever had at a restaurant. Other people had the fish stew, which also turned out to be extremely over salted.
When it finally came time for dessert I said I'd order the sweet potato creme brulee only if the chief can come out and explain to me how it's made. I know it sounds a bit demanding but you really should know what the heck you're eating and paying for at a restaurant. The creme brulee came out in a typical ramekin with a film thin layer of caramelized powder sugar. The chief, although seemed a bit reserved, did explain to me that the dessert is made from real sweet potatoes by boiling it in milk and blending the puree into egg yolks. The whole thing is made without creme, which makes one wonder if it's even possible to called it a creme brulee especially without the sugar on top. This is basically a sweet potato custard. I know, who cares right? I do. I'm nuts and I don't ever plan to set foot in that place again.
For this kind of price I can have fresh fish in Lisbon that's carted out from the kitchen, properly deboned in front of me and then trenched in warm butter! Just simply good food. I remember the last time I had rainbow trout with Rose in Bariloche like it was yesterday. The fish was also a bit salty but the white creme leek sauce was amazing. We laughed our butt off joking that the cooks intentionally made our food salty just to see if we would break down to buy a drink at the restaurant. We never did. We don't like to pay for water when we travel.
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