With five kids at home, I take date night seriously. When Roy and I plan to go out, I do my research - or ask Roy for help. The last restaurant we went to was Passionfish in Reston, and it was a total and complete homerun! EVERYTHING about the meal was wonderful - the food (of course!), the service, the decor, the ambiance - just a wonderful time.
So, we decided to go out this past Friday. There was a restaurant I wanted to try - Blue Duck Tavern in DC. Trendy, but supposed to have very good food. Well, we had a quick stop to make beforehand, and, unfortunately, it wasn’t quite as short a stop as we wanted, and we missed our reservation. Oh well! So, Roy worked fast and got us a reservation at Morton’s Steakhouse in Georgetown. Not our first choice for the night, but we both wanted to try it, so why not? Got down there, found parking - which is completely nerve racking for me to begin with in Georgetown. My car is so big (Ford E350 13 seater) that finding a garage that my car fits in is almost impossible, and Roy’s car is so nice, that I don’t want to drive it down there to begin with! That leaves Corey’s car - which smells like food and old soda… no thanks. And, of course, it’s too cold for one of Roy’s bikes… sooo… we take his car and hope for the best.
Anyways, we park and walk to the restaurant. I put on heels and was just trying not to break my ankle on the uneven pavement (yes, I suck at walking in heels), when our destination popped up ahead of us.
We went in, and to be honest, it wasn’t really what I expected. It was sort of dark, not skeevy dark, but I felt like I was being led to a backroom poker game, and I wondered if I knew the password. So, we are shown to our table, doing good so far. Our server, a very sweet young lady, brought us the cocktail menu.
And right off the bat, I was surprised. I don’t mind paying for an expensive meal, but the prices on this menu… I knew this was gonna be a doozy. BUT, I heard this was the place for steak, so we went with it. Roy got an Old Fashioned (I LOVE the name of this cocktail), and I got a Skinny Blood Orange Martini. A few minutes later we are brought our cocktails - as soon as I saw Roy’s served in a martini glass I should have been on notice. You don’t serve an Old Fashioned in a martini glass; you serve it in a lowball tumbler! Ok, whatever. The drinks were tasty, so I let it slide. (But, I mean really what was I going to say anyways?)
We were then given our menus - and there it was… the prices (the fact that they don’t put prices on their menu on the web, should have alerted me this was gonna be CRAZY!). Pricey, but right there on the menu it says - The Best Steaks Anywhere. Ok, show me what you got.
I had Tuna Tartar at Passionfish and absolutely and completely loved it. I would go back there just for that, so we ordered that as an appetizer. Roy ordered a Cesar Salad, and we told our server we were going to share both.
The Tartar was ok-but for $18 I expected something more. Unfortunately, our Tuna Tartar was more tomato than Tuna, but ok.
The Salad was ok, but it’s a Caesar salad, how bad can you mess it up? Ok, my crouton was sort of stale and and soggy at the same time, but whatever.
BUT, here is the kicker for us. We were there, we were out, and I love being with my husband, so we decided to go for the Double Porterhouse - a 48 ounce steak for two, cut tableside. Pricey - $114, but we decided to do it. Remember, best steak anywhere! To go with that, we ordered Grilled Asparagus and Onion Rings with Thai Dipping Sauce.
We don’t cook steak at home a lot. Cheap steak is a joke, and why even bother? It doesn’t taste good, and sort of ruins the meal. On the other hand, with 7 people that all LOVE good steak, it’s pricey, but when we do it at home, Roy and I get the best we can find, and Roy always cooks it. And it is always excellent. So, I figured we are at a place that bills itself AS a Steakhouse, and I thought the porterhouse would be an experience - we both did. A positive experience!
What a joke! It was brought to our table, and it looked good from afar! We asked for it medium, and this was perhaps our fault - when it was cut, it was up rather high, and we couldn’t quite see it (remember, it’s dark). So, the server cut it, and served us and then left.
“Honey, I don’t know about this.” Roy told me as he looked at his steak.
“What?” I looked at mine. Again, the lighting wasn’t great in the restaurant, and I have crappy eyesight. It looked a little… well, red… but ok. “Hang on, let me try it.”
Roy knew I was making a mistake, but my first bite was ok, a little rare, but nothing offensive. My second bite… steak tartar. And while I LOVE Tuna Tartar, not interested in steak tartar.
“Oh, Roy.” I admit it, I tried not to gag, “That was raw.”
“Ok, put your knife down, we need to send this back.” We sat there, and munched on our onion rings, which were tasty by the way.
Finally, the gentleman that sat us, came by and asked if everything was ok. Roy told him that our steaks were not medium. The guy promised he would handle it.
A few minutes later, they were brought back, and it was obvious they had just slapped the filets back on the grill. not sure what I was expecting them to do, but if it was cooked better, then ok.
IT was NOT. Mine was charred on the outside and still almost raw on the inside. I had ordered another cocktail and was feeling a bit tipsy, so Roy and I at this point just sort of laughed over things. BUT I could tell it was getting to Roy. On date night he enjoys taking me to nice places. He enjoys having a meal we can reminisce about and remember. This was going to be one of those, but NOT in a good day.
“Oh, wow,” I was chewing a piece of meat, and Roy looked over at me.
“You ok? What’s wrong?” Roy asked me, with his hand on my back.
I tried to be as discrete as possible, but I spit out the piece I was chewing on. Yes, I spit out a piece of my $114 steak. Honestly, it was bad. Not just sort of bad, but full on gross. Charred on one side and raw on the other.
“Honey, that was gross. Not just bad, but gross.” I told him.
He shook his head. I cut around my meat trying to find the parts I could eat, but so much of mine was either charred or raw that I ended up leaving about 65% of my steak uneaten. Roy did a little better, but he’s usually more forgiving of his own plate than he is of mine or the boys’. He’ll suffer, but won’t let me or the boys.
Our server asked if everything was ok, and Roy told her the issue. I just wanted to get out of there; we were both so disappointed. The manager came by again, and said that it is such a big piece of meat it is hard to get right. Sure, we understand that, BUT when you say right on your menu - The Best Steak Anywhere - and it’s ON the menu, I was expecting a damn good steak! But even if it had been cooked right, there was virtually NO seasoning on it… not a bit! So, on top of being raw or charred, it was tasteless! He wanted to buy us drinks - no thanks… our drinks were fine, and I was already tipsy. Dessert, no thank you, I just wanted to leave, and there is a little place in DC that has some really good Frozen Hot Chocolate that we KNOW is gonna be awesome. He said when we came in again, mention his namem and we will get the VIP treatment. Again, with all the GOOD (some great) steakhouses in DC, why would I come back? And then we get the bill.
$235. Frankly, I didnt’ know what to do? We were so unhappy with the meal. On the other hand, do we just pay and take it up with their corporate office? What should we do?
Roy handed over our credit card, and I could see he did so reluctantly. When he got it back, he cringed adding the tip and signing the slip.
We like to try new restaurants, new things - and again, we aren’t opposed to saving some money up so that we can splurge on a special night out, but this one was SO disappointing. The steak wasn’t even mediocre; it was BAD. We have never spent this much on one meal for just the two of us, and frankly, the best thing I can say about it was one of my cocktails was pretty good. And I did get to go to the Frozen Hot Chocolate place and enjoy it!
To put the meal into perspective… Roy came to me last night.
“Come on honey, let’s go to Chili’s.” He joked that he wanted to make it up to me, though he had nothing to make up.
We go to our local Chili’s often. We sit in the bar, order the same stuff and usually the same young lady serves us. She knows what we like, and always has a friendly smile for us. Roy had a beer, I had my usual - a Mango Daiquiri. We ordered the chips and salsa (my favorite!) and the triple dipper - we get the Southwestern Eggrolls and two orders of the Big Mouth Bites. Roy had another beer. We spent $45 dollars (that included a 20% tip) and had a better meal and a better time.
So, I ask you - how would you have handled the bad meal? Did we do the right thing? I’m still unsure… We paid and tipped, and we will expect corporate to make it up to us.
