rant: fine dining

[Molly]

So where's everyone going for V-day dinner tonight? I'm feeling sushi, nothing fancy.

Left overs at home. College basketball for hubby, Grey's Anatomy and Patrick Dempsey for me

[Freed Roger]

ugh, why did we choose to eat at a place called Robust? Simply bad.

edit: our friends chose it. we don't get out like that much, so usually I have a halo effect on restaurants for a day or two before i can give a real assessment.

The place had Webster cougars everywhere.

The workers wear some dumb t-shirts that describe types of wine - sticky, sweet, etc etc I felt bad for the emasculated waiters. They seemed to go out of their way to give poor service - something I don't usually notice much.

[docellis]

We seriously looked online at 30 menus and then went and bought food at schnucks.

[haltz]

Never been to Robust, but this is hilarious

http://www.robustwinebar.com/stlouis-wi ... factor.php

[Freed Roger]

Never been to Robust, but this is hilarious

http://www.robustwinebar.com/stlouis-wi ... factor.php

Exactly.

[jim]

I don't know what it is but there is no way I would go to a place called "Robust". Guessing a lot of guys like this there:

[ghostrunner]

My wife had $150 in gift certificates for Ruth's Chris in exchange for some wedding invitations she designed, so we went there Saturday. We used the whole thing and split a $50 steak. It's too much for a steak, but it was incredible. Red in the middle, but warm and delicious.

[jim]

Steak red in the middle and warm and delicious? Congratulations Ruth's Chris on putting the steak on the grill for 5 minutes, and then flipping it and letting it sit for 4 more minutes, and then putting it on a plate and giving it to someone. Excellent work!

[Freed Roger]

Never been to Robust, but this is hilarious

http://www.robustwinebar.com/stlouis-wi ... factor.php

Haltz, since you are somewhat in that industry, I'll elaborate on our crappy experience. Granted, people can be pretty persnickety about their dining and servers - but trust me, I am not one of them. This is a fellow Cousin Hugos aficionado here. Like I said before, we usually are just happy to be out for the evening, and often my favorite restaurant is the last one I've been to.

Or maybe I should just point out that the servers wear this and enough said.

[SHOW]

Nevertheless, I will go on. We had drinks there a few months ago after eating across the street at The Block -that place was good in spite of a Webster crowd. Back then, Robust gave me weird vibes, with the name, the stupid shirts. and the warped cougar patrons. IIRC, some cougars growled at us during our tenure there for having the audacity to use the open bar stools next to them. I just knew this place was bad.

Anyway, our friends picked to go there last weekend- for the tasting plate dealio. Let's just say the place is pretentious, the food is overpriced and mediocre at best. And they've been known to Groupon. The server -she with her paunchy belly protuding from her too-tight stupid shirt, clearly did not like us. Our friend with us, she is a cute gal who dresses a bit eclectic -i.e. camo pants with a sparkly top, so maybe we weren't Webster enough.

We were in there a half-hour before getting a drink. Then two of them come, and the other two are several minutes behind. Same thing with the food, they'd put food in front of two of us, and it would be 5 minutes before the other two of us were served - really dumb. Having your water glass refilled obsessively was not a problem here, because they don't do it - unfortunately I happened to be thirsty.

Oh well, I hope this place makes it so the webster cougar groupon-using [expletive] have a place to congregate far far away from where I will be next time. Worst money I've spent.

[haltz]

I get the pretentiousness and the contempt for customers, but you need to be good to pull that off. The order should come at once, the food should be good, and don't advertise your hilarious wine system on embarrassing t-shirts.