Not-So-Delicious Restaurant Review

So Vince and I just got back from a fancy-schmancy-$30-a-plate dinner, and guess what? It completely sucked. Here is my review of the restaurant, because I have to tell someone!

Vince's customers at work love him and I sewed a jersey for one of them, so he gave us a gift card for a local restaurant, Josephine's. It is one of the most high end restaurants in town, so we were excited to spend the $80 (!!) gift card on some delicious food.

We've had the gift card for a couple months now, we just haven't got around to making reservations. We finally decided last night that we were going to make a reservation for tonight, after I got off work. I got home with and hour and a half to spare, so I went on a run and then got ready.

When we walked in the door, the right 'wall' was actually a serving bar. As in, where the food is placed so the waiters/waitresses can pick it up to deliver to peoples tables. Do you know how tempted I was to stick my fingers in someone's mashed potatoes! It was literally RIGHT THERE at my elbow. If I wasn't paying attention I could have stuck my elbow in a plate of food.  I also thought it was weird because if it was even the slightest bit breezy outside, I know that some dog hair would have flown off my shirt and went into the food.

We got seated and the first thing Vince and I noticed was that the electrical outlets didn't even have covers on them, just the wiring. Umm, hello. You can change $10 for a tiny hummus dip, but you can't afford a 45 cent outlet cover? Also, there was wood trim around the room and there was paint splattered all over it! I think it's super tacky that they couldn't take the extra 5 minutes to put tape on it to protect it.

We ordered caprese for a starter, ya know the whole tomato/cheese/balsamic vinegar thing? It was $10 so I was expecting a decent amount of tomatoes, but there were 4 slices. It wasn't even half a tomato! I thought it was pretty bland and there was too much olive oil, making it a little sweet. I wished there was more balsamic on it for that tartness.

After eating the appetizer, our main dishes came. Vince ordered some shrimp mac and cheese and it was tiny. He said it was pretty good though. I ordered the special, with was a rib eye steak with mashed potatoes mixed with gouda cheese over mixed veggies. I was expecting it to be delicious and a prime steak.

The first bit I took of my small-sized steak, I almost gagged. It was entirely fat. Not even a tiny bit of it was chewable meat, it was just all gooey and I immediately felt sick to my stomach. I hate that texture! I decided that I would pay attention to my next bite and started poking at my meat to see if there was a solid portion to cut. I slowly realized that 70% of it was fat. There was a little bit of pink meat here and there, but the size of the bite I would be able to take without fat on it was about 1/2 a tablespoon at a time, which is not a big bite!

I was extremely bummed because I could go to our natural food store and buy a local grass fed hunk of meat that size for around $10. I'm guessing their meat is not grass fed at the restaurant, so I could actually go to a grocery store and get a better less fatty piece of meat for around $6. If you also account for the veggies and potatoes, you can add $2 more, so if I made the same meal at home it would be an $8 meal. So basically they charged me $22 to cook a meal that has left me still super super hungry.

One thing I was shocked about was that they didn't even offer any 'freebies'. You know how when you go to even a simple 'nice' place like Red Lobster, they give you free unlimited cheddar biscuits, as well as a salad with your meal? Well, we got none of that. No bread, no salad, no nothing. If we wanted a side salad, it would have been an extra $7!

Luckily we had the gift certificate or I would have freaked. {Actually, we wouldn't have gone there in the first place because I don't think there are many meals worth $30.} We ended up pay $20 for the last bit of the bill and tip, and I was unhappy even paying that amount. It was truly a horrible meal. We did have a decent waiter though, so I wasn't going to gip him!

I completely understand that it may be a more touristy restaurant, but still, they will need local people to keep it going through the winter months. I can assure you that I would never go there again, even if someone else was paying, because there was nothing good about it, unfortunately.