LarryWolfe
Chef Extraordinaire
Last night my wife and I celebrated our 8th Anniversary with Dinner and a Movie. The original plan was to go to Fotis Restaurant but then she came up with this great idea that I pick the movie and she picks where we eat.......I new that would be trouble cause my wife has a fixation on CHAIN RESTAURANTS. I hear the same thing everytime we go to a chain restaurant.....'why do you always just get chicken wings', and I say it's the only thing that they make that I'm gonna like cause all their crap is frozen and already prepared, all they do is pull it out of the freezer, deep fry and serve.... anyways......
After the movie, she decided we go to Sweet Water Tavern, which is a restaurant that is owned by Great American Restaurants and has a chain of different 'High End' restaurants... There's always a long line of people waiting to get in, we waited 45 minutes and here's how the night progressed.
We started off with:
Blue Crab Fritters - $9
with roast corn salsa and lobster ginger butter
Review: These tasted absolutely NOTHING like crab whatsoever, but my wife loved them....they did do a good job of not adding alot of filler, they were meaty but it definitely was NOT Blue Crab as advertised. The sauce was very bland as well, but I did enjoy the roast corn and pepper salsa.
2nd Appetizer was: Firecracker Shrimp - $8
Crumb fried Shrimp & tossed with thin beans and spicy pepper jelly
Review: Just another take off of another boring appetizer from other chain restaurants, (Bonefish- Bang Bang Shrimp). The best thing about these shrimp was they were not overcooked, but very boring and soggy breading. The cabbage slaw was the best thing about this dish.
Entree #1 - My wife had: Drunken Rib Eye Steak - $22 - Black Angus Beef marinated in our Great American Pale Ale with sauteed mushrooms, loaded baked potato & choice of house, caesar or mixed greens salad
Review: House salad with their signature creamy herb dressing....soggy overdressed typical chopped iceburg, tomatoes, bagged croutons etc. She ordered it medium and I kid you not, the steak came out RAW. It must have spent 30 seconds at most on the grill.....so, that got sent back and they brought out a new steak, potato, not the same reheated steak (like they should have). She bit into it and I asked well, before she responded she cut me a piece, I looked like Gordon Ramsey as I spit it out and wiped the flavor off my tongue....It had such an overwhelming salty flavor from the marinade you could have put it on a shoe and not been able to tell the difference. She liked the potato though! Oh, they also served mushrooms in the sauce along with the steak. Mushrooms obviously came out of one of those big jar of marinated mushrooms you buy at Costco......like little pieces of rubber.
Entree #2 - Their Daily special of Grilled Halibut served over a bed of cauliflower mash, with a lemon dill butter sauce and a European relish of sundried tomatoes, capers and roasted peppers - $24
Review: I changed the order around a bit due to my latest cholesterol screening and my new prescription of Zocor. So I ordered it with baked potato instead of the butter laden cauliflower mash, no butter on the potato wither and no butter sauce on the fish. The fish was cooked absolutely perfect, however I think they planned on the sauce adding flavor to the fish, because it had no flavor and was not even seasoned with salt and pepper. So I requested lemon wedges and I seasoned with that and s&p. Again, the fish was cooked great and the portion was very good, but BLAND BLAND BLAND and I waited until my wifes steak was recooked, so mine was cold by the time I ate it.
I had 3 of their own brewed beers @ $4.50 each, by far the best deal of the day.
Gold Rush Ale
an American Pale Ale...deep gold with bold Pacific northwest hop character.
Great American Restaurants Pale Ale:
a fruity, copper-colored ale with a firm maltiness & dry hop. BRONZE MEDAL WINNER AT THE 2002 GREAT AMERICAN BEER FESTIVAL
Black Stallion Oatmeal Stout:
a rich, smooth...long dry-roast finish...ebony
After dinner, drinks and tip, $95. I don't care about the price and would have spent about double that at Fotis. I didn't care about price, it was our Anniversary. But for the quality of food and the prices they charged was WRONG on every level! But as long as they have people storming their doors, they will continue to profit while people enjoy sub par food!
After the movie, she decided we go to Sweet Water Tavern, which is a restaurant that is owned by Great American Restaurants and has a chain of different 'High End' restaurants... There's always a long line of people waiting to get in, we waited 45 minutes and here's how the night progressed.
We started off with:
Blue Crab Fritters - $9
with roast corn salsa and lobster ginger butter
Review: These tasted absolutely NOTHING like crab whatsoever, but my wife loved them....they did do a good job of not adding alot of filler, they were meaty but it definitely was NOT Blue Crab as advertised. The sauce was very bland as well, but I did enjoy the roast corn and pepper salsa.
2nd Appetizer was: Firecracker Shrimp - $8
Crumb fried Shrimp & tossed with thin beans and spicy pepper jelly
Review: Just another take off of another boring appetizer from other chain restaurants, (Bonefish- Bang Bang Shrimp). The best thing about these shrimp was they were not overcooked, but very boring and soggy breading. The cabbage slaw was the best thing about this dish.
Entree #1 - My wife had: Drunken Rib Eye Steak - $22 - Black Angus Beef marinated in our Great American Pale Ale with sauteed mushrooms, loaded baked potato & choice of house, caesar or mixed greens salad
Review: House salad with their signature creamy herb dressing....soggy overdressed typical chopped iceburg, tomatoes, bagged croutons etc. She ordered it medium and I kid you not, the steak came out RAW. It must have spent 30 seconds at most on the grill.....so, that got sent back and they brought out a new steak, potato, not the same reheated steak (like they should have). She bit into it and I asked well, before she responded she cut me a piece, I looked like Gordon Ramsey as I spit it out and wiped the flavor off my tongue....It had such an overwhelming salty flavor from the marinade you could have put it on a shoe and not been able to tell the difference. She liked the potato though! Oh, they also served mushrooms in the sauce along with the steak. Mushrooms obviously came out of one of those big jar of marinated mushrooms you buy at Costco......like little pieces of rubber.
Entree #2 - Their Daily special of Grilled Halibut served over a bed of cauliflower mash, with a lemon dill butter sauce and a European relish of sundried tomatoes, capers and roasted peppers - $24
Review: I changed the order around a bit due to my latest cholesterol screening and my new prescription of Zocor. So I ordered it with baked potato instead of the butter laden cauliflower mash, no butter on the potato wither and no butter sauce on the fish. The fish was cooked absolutely perfect, however I think they planned on the sauce adding flavor to the fish, because it had no flavor and was not even seasoned with salt and pepper. So I requested lemon wedges and I seasoned with that and s&p. Again, the fish was cooked great and the portion was very good, but BLAND BLAND BLAND and I waited until my wifes steak was recooked, so mine was cold by the time I ate it.
I had 3 of their own brewed beers @ $4.50 each, by far the best deal of the day.
Gold Rush Ale
an American Pale Ale...deep gold with bold Pacific northwest hop character.
Great American Restaurants Pale Ale:
a fruity, copper-colored ale with a firm maltiness & dry hop. BRONZE MEDAL WINNER AT THE 2002 GREAT AMERICAN BEER FESTIVAL
Black Stallion Oatmeal Stout:
a rich, smooth...long dry-roast finish...ebony
After dinner, drinks and tip, $95. I don't care about the price and would have spent about double that at Fotis. I didn't care about price, it was our Anniversary. But for the quality of food and the prices they charged was WRONG on every level! But as long as they have people storming their doors, they will continue to profit while people enjoy sub par food!
