I did like it!
The ambiance was great. Music wasn't loud enough to hinder conversation and I'm a sucker for the eighties, so all good. I still get the feeling that they haven't quite ironed out their process when it comes to service. Not to say that it was in any way deficient ( it most certainly wasn't) but it was a bit awkward, if that makes sense. For example, the two hostesses couldn't decide between themselves which one was gonna seat us, so one led us to the table, and the other followed with two menus. It was kinda cute but not bad -- I think they are still getting used to moving smoothly through the whole thing.
We didn't get appetizers, though the wings looked mighty tempting, instead opting for sides. I got the pulled pork with the mac 'n cheese (which came with everything peedal mentioned) and hubby ordered the brisket with mash. I'll save you the suspense and tell you that we both thought the pork was better although the brisket was pretty good too. The sauce was delicious.
When I read peedal's issue with food temp, I thought it was a one-off thing but even though the food came out pretty quickly, my pork was only luke-warm as was hubby's garlic mash. I am not sure why that is, but I really would have liked the meat to have been hotter -- I think that would have brought out the flavors of the sauce much more. Hopefully, that is something they will eventually iron out.
Despite the temp issue, the food was by and large delicious. The mash had a great texture and aftertaste and the mac 'n cheese was creamy and just the way I like it. The meat, as I said earlier, was yummy with the pork edging out the beef on taste but only just. The corn was really really good -- better than I've had in a long while -- but I was not in awe of the coleslaw. They overdid it on the dressing. I don't know if they offer vinegar-based one instead, but if they do then that's what I'm asking for next time. The other bits were cooked well, but since neither hubby or I really like seasoned potato wedge-type things, we didn't make much of a dent in them.
No desert since by the end we were so stuffed, they could have rolled us out of there. The portion sizes are not ridiculously large, but I think we were pushing it with the two sides. It makes more sense to share one.
The room we were in (there are two dining rooms, I think) was decently filled, mostly with large (5+ people) parties and lots of North Americans. Pretty impressive for a Monday night.
The only serious problem that we had was with the bar. I had my trusty diet coke, so it wasn't an issue for me, but hubby ordered a Long Island Iced Tea and a Seabreeze and neither was particularly good. The Iced Tea tasted oddly flat, like the coke they used had lost all carbonation and the seabreeze was just...off. Maybe next time, hubby won't tax the barman (or woman) and just stick to ale as per peedal's advice.
In summary, I'll be back!
