Ok, first off, let me say that I was most certainly predisposed not to enjoy my dining experience at the Bonefish Grill. I generally avoid all these stupid “P.J. O’Quackenbush’s”-type national chain restaurants…but, frankly, the dining scene here in Winston-Salem is so lacking that I’ll try pretty much anything at this point. (And I had initially gone earlier to one of Winston’s really great restaurants, the Ishi sushi bar, and the line was out the door–usually I’d wait, but I couldn’t this particular evening.)
So what were the big problems?
(1) The waitstaff is apparently required to wear chefcoats. WTF? Maybe all the local police officers should dress like the mayor…or firemen. Whatever…
(2) The usual annoying prepared speach/schtick that these chain places make the servers do. Does the management really think people find this appealing?
(3) For a fish restaurant, they have a suprizingly paltry, and quite boring, selection of fish. Just the “usual suspects:” tuna, sword, salmon, mahi, trout, sea bass (which is usally not sea bass at all, but a variety of grouper). How about something you can’t get at a restaurant that doesn’t (supposedly) specialize in fish: mackerel, turbot, amberjack, wahoo, etc. You know that expression, “There’s a lot of fish in the sea?”
(4) Most stunningly… They apparently don’t actually have any of this fish. That’s right, Katherine ordered trout…no trout. I ordered mahi….no mahi. Katherine then ordered tuna…no tuna. I tried salmon…no salmon. They did have bread, though. Maybe they should call it the “Breadcrust Grill” in the interest of truth in advertising.
(5) After this disaster, the manager comped our $7.00 appetizer. Nice try…but, I worked in food service for almost 10 years; when you have a screw up like being out of 80% of the stuff on the meny, you comp the meal. Period.
(6) And to top it all off, the food we finally did get was mediocre at best. Maybe this is because by the time we got through this whole guessing game about what menu items they actually had, the kitchen was closing down and the chefs no doubt just wanted to go home.
I’d link to their website, but it’s entirely in Flash. This is also annoying.
2 comments
I do understand you were displeased with your dining experience at Bonefish and to be quite honest with you i don’t understand why… you say you are sick of these restaraunt chains well… Bonefish did not start out that way and is in much better standing than Ruby Tuesday’s or Fridays etc… Maybe, if you could take in the idea of it, the reason the selection of fish at the restaraunt you visited was limited due to a certain lack of concern by the kitchen manager, yes, but then again maybe it was just not that easy to come by. And yeah you’re right about the selection of fish being limited, but before you go off on a pouting spree, shouldn’t you also consider health codes… The primary menu shows a select few fish that are not seasonal but there is a specials board that when fish become available are put on… and what about Tilefish… yes, that is on the menu…
Author
“I do understand you were displeased with your dining experience at Bonefish and to be quite honest with you i don’t understand why”
See points 1-6 above, #4 being the real biggie–the rest were just minor annoyances.
“before you go off on a pouting spree, shouldn’t you also consider health codes…”
A single blog entry is a “pouting spree?” That’s hardly a “spree” and, frankly, it’s more bitching than pouting. I worked in food service for a long time and am all too familiar with NC health codes, none of which have anything substantive to do with–nor can be made a scapegoat for–an uninspired menu and an obvious food stock/supply problem.
“what about Tilefish… yes, that is on the menu…”
I don’t recall that being on the menu when I was there, but it was a while back and I could be wrong. At any rate, as mentioned in the initial post, the real problem is that most of what was on the menu wasn’t in fact available to order. Barbecued sea urchin with a side of steamed eel could have been “on the menu” but that clearly would have no bearing as to whether or not a customer who ordered it would have actually wound up with a meal of it or not.
Look, I went to the place, had a bad experience, wrote a blog entry about it, and haven’t been back since. Big deal. If you think I’m wrong, think that the Bonefish Grill is great, then no problem–go eat there, spend your money there. But don’t go Googling around and then accuse anyone who doesn’t agree with you of being on a “pouting spree.”
-B.