So the recipes for Doug are done but I am having trouble figuring out how to switch formats so I figured I would write about Brian's and my experience at Divine Prime last night.
Brian always mentions how we should start a food blog. I am always slow to do it because all the reviews would be negative. It is so hard to find a good restaurant here and last night was no exception.
I had just finished working 11 days straight with 7 those being one full week which consisted of 70 hours and was prepared to have my first day off. Brian also happened to be off as well. I was still feeling sick (70 hours is never fun but especially not when you are fighting off a cold/flu/infection/whatever) but we had gone and done some errands and had gotten back. I started working on finishing typing up recipes and Brian was playing his game. He decided that he wanted to go out to eat and about 7pm I started to get really hungry. I was very excited because I haven't been hungry all week. The next question became where we should go.
I had a $25 dollar gift card to Divine Dining group who owns several restaurants in town. One of them was Roy and Sids so we decided to go there. When we got there we found out that Roy and Sids closed but Divine Prime (literally right next door, they used to share bathrooms and kitchens) was open. We debated going to Travinia (another restaurant in the area but not part of Divine Dining) but decided to stick with Divine Prime due to the fact we had that $25 dollar gift card and I didn't want to walk that far.
We arrived before 7:30 and had to wait 10 minutes to get seated and the place was empty with one table of 10 (not that large for groups) and two tables with 2 people. We get seated and it takes our waitress forever to get our drinks. We place our appetizer order and wait. And wait. And wait and finally she comes back for our entree order. We did not get our appetizer for 45 minutes. It took another 20 minutes for the salads to come and it was after 9 by the time our entree's came out. The place closes at 10pm. The group who had placed their orders WELL before we arrived (they had just received their salads as we were waiting to be seated). Our waitress continues to ignore us throughout the night, my water glass remained empty for most of it. She was also clearly disappointed that we werent getting any cocktails/wine and dessert. She did apologize for it seeming like it was taking awhile but I do not count that. It didnt seem to take awhile...it WAS taking forever. We were ready to leave after the appetizer but stayed just hoping it would get better. We had plans to watch a movie when we got home but couldn't because of how late it was. The food was okay...not horrible but really nothing special. We were so incredibly disappointed. And the bill....the it was well over 100 after tip (Brian was nice, he tipped her more then I would have) even with the gift card. So completely not worth it. Oh and it was such a good thing that I was not starving about to eat my hand before we went too.
You want to know what would have been worth it? Going to Ruth Chris...sure it would have cost a little more but the food and experience would have been worth it. Going to Blossom...sure it is in Charleston and would be a bit of a drive but it would have been a better use of time and a much better meal. Walking in the freezing cold to Travinia, it would have been a little cheaper but so much better. Heck going to El Cerro, a really cheap but good Mexican restaurant would have been better. Mcdonalds would have been better. I have never been so disappointed in a restaurant.
You know what makes it even worse? Brian was using this as his celebratory dinner of finishing school since as of today...he is done. Can I have a do over please?
That's terrible!
ReplyDeleteIt's restaurant experiences like that that cause me to be weary of trying new places. Allan and I have only a few places we like to go to, and not all of them are expensive either.
This just goes to show that just because the prices are high, doesn't mean it's worth it. It's the hole-in-the-wall mom and pop places that are usually the best or the "greasy spoons".
We have that same problem Erica! I know every city/town has bad restaurants but it seems MB has MORE then their fair share. We have had several favorites in different price ranges to suit whatever mood we were in. Most of those have not lasted and we no longer have a real go to restaurant :-\ We will find a good restaurant and will frequent it often but then after a year or so it goes down the drain completely and we can't bear to go back. These restaurants survive since people still LOVE them...we don't understand how but I don't understand alot of what these people do or say :-\. We think Divine Prime was trying to be like Ruth Chris (we have one the next town over) and failed miserably.
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