Disappointing Rialto Restaurant Week Experience
So, I feel obligated to share my disappointment in my experience last evening at Rialto for Restaurant Week. This was my first time at the restaurant and I left with my only positive feeling being that I was glad I didn't pay full-price for their regular menu.
For starters I had the mushroom risotto which was so undercooked the rice was crunchy.
My husband had the gnocchi which was gummy and uninteresting.
For entrees I had the pork loin which was three thin slices of underseasoned pork with a few green beans, undercooked, gummy polenta, and a green mustard sauce. My husband had the char which was fine, but ordinary.
The desserts were the best thing about the meal, but by that point I was still hungry and underwhelmed. I'm not someone who needs to stuff myself, but this meal was unsatisfying both in portion size and in orginiality.
Maybe Rialto was just skimping for Restaurant Week, but then I question what's the point of doing it if you aren't going to make the dishes interesting enough that diners want to come back again to pay full-price?
Definitely wishing I had tried T.W. Food instead.
apisoni
Mar 11, 2008 07:19AM
Did you let anyone at the restaurant know re: the disappointment in the undercooked risotto or gummy gnocchi?
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I thought about it, but I usually tend to feel bad about making complaints unless it's something really atrocious, such as hair in the food or really over/underdone meat. I know complaints bother servers and I didn't really have the guts to bring it up.
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Well, I'd think it would be something that owner/chef Jody Adams would want to know - crunchy risotto is not something I'd think she'd put out there as a standard item. Do you know if she was there last night? Couldn't hurt to just send an Email to her.
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I agree, Linda.
Restaurants want you to leave happy. If something is wrong enough with your dinner to post a scathing review online, it was surely worth mentioning to the waiter. Restaurants make mistakes. By not letting the restaurant fix their mistakes, the diner is (almost) as much at fault as the restaurant.
I don't get how someone doesn't "have the guts" to mention a problem to the waiter, but has plenty of guts to post a negative review on a public forum.
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Perhaps you are right and I should have said something last night. I think part of it was that it was my first dish of the evening and I thought it was maybe a fluke and the rest of the meal would be significantly better.
I don't mean this review to be scathing because as I mentioned, the desserts were good and the entrees were just uninteresting, but not bad, so that didn't merit a complaint.
My point of this posting is more for a reflection on what higher-end restaurants such as Rialto choose to do for Restaurant Week. I had high hopes for this restaurant and left feeling that it was much more ordinary than I expected. I know it's Restaurant Week so they are catering more to the masses, but also a lot of people who care about food take advantage of Restaurant Week as a way to explore restaurants they haven't tried yet. So, I usually hope the restaurant's RW menu is a decent reflection of the tastes and feel of the restaurant on a regular week.
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Re: "cooking for the masses"....Last year, Rialto had a few "opt ups" for RW, which we took advantage of. Did they have any this time?
We really enjoyed our last RW experience there, so much so that TC wants to go back...(I know, this puts us in the class that rest owners don't want, the repeats during RW, but hey, we're broke...)
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A restaurant of Rialto's caliber should not be making amateur mistakes, like undercooked risotto. I personally do not have an issue telling a waiter if I have a problem, but most people actually DO feel very uncomfortable expressing their unhappiness, especially at a more upscale restaurant. you could also place blame on the waiter for not picking up on the unhappiness at the table.
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There is a way to complain without risk of the staff horking a loogie into your food: do so *after* the meal. I always make it a point to notify management when my experience is either very good *or* very bad, after I've paid. Sometimes even the next day by phone or email. That way the management knows I'm sincere and wasn't simply angling for a comp or reduction in my bill.
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Scathing? Hardly.
Whether a diner chooses to bring up a poor dish to the waitstaff or not is irrelevant to whether they post about their experience.
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I'm going to reply by starting a thread about this on the Not About Food board, per moderator request.
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This is the worst time of the year for restaurants, thus RW. If they perform like this, not much harm done, you got the meal for short $. I would write to the GM and let them know, the message gets across that you probably are not coming back to patronize in the future, which is the real reason for RW. Also, most places are running RW type specials through out the year, due to the conditions we are currently living with (gas, heating and general high prices to live).
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It's interesting that you say the Boston restaurants are looking for repeat business out of restaurant week. I had a conversation recently with a local restaurant owner where I expressed my dislike for restaurant week. I was told that this particular restaurant tracks their repeat business from restaurant week and the most of the repeats they get is at other restaurant weeks. Anyway, I usually avoid RW like the plague but had lunch with some co-workers yesterday at Ruth's Chris. I'm off meat at the moment so I just ordered salad off the regular menu, but my co-workers were pleased and $20 is a bargain. They each had a salad, a pretty big filet and a full size side.
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I am not a big fan of RW either, unfortunately, the restaurant owner is correct about repeat business. However, even if they can get a small percent, say one in ten, to repeat they are better off than none. Also, RW is in the worst time of year, so is a half loaf better than none? FYI- on Ruth's Chris, not my fav, I believe they are running their $20.08 special beyond RW, it's a good value, I just don't like everything soaked in butter.
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Good point lissy ... some of the best RW experiences I've had have included the "tracking device" .. usually a coupon to come back in to the resto later. To me, this is an indication that the GM is interested in impressing and getting the repeat business. I wonder what the stats really look like.
I just heard a nightmare experience about Ruth's Chris for RW, but will let the nightmaree chime in if they want to.
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At Rialto, I would have definitely sent back "crunchy" risotto. That's unacceptable and a sign of shoddy execution.
At Sonny's maybe not.
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Haven't seen rissoto on Sonny's menu lately, but I really liked the stuffed mushrooms. Can't say I'm much of a fan of RW either. I was debating on where to go tonight and remembered it was that time of the year. I'm sure that there are exceptions, but it seems like every RW menu is salmon; chicken or possibly a vegetatrian option. Back to the rissoto -- I had an amazing olive rissoto at Pomodoro recently.
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No, but the words "pan seared" appeared there recently, so it's only a matter of time ....
I just returned from a fantastic lunch at L' Espalier. For $20 you have to expect smaller than usual portions (with a notable exception once at Hamersley's!) and limited selection. Same with dinner. I'm sorry that your meal was subpar. That happened last summer during RW for us at Sel de la Terre. Still, though, we keep going.
We choose high end restaurants for RW so that if things aren't that great, it's usually still better than dropping the same $20 at Legal or Parish Cafe.
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Folks, please help us keep this thread on topic. General discussions about whether or not someone should raise problems to the management at a restaurant belong on the Not About Food board, where you are welcome to start a thread on that topic if so inclined. Any further discussion on that topic will be removed so that we can keep the focus here on local chow.
Thank you!
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I had a similarly disappointing experience at Rialto, during restaurant week, last fall or last year, not sure. I haven't been back since!!
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and mine was three years ago and I haven't returned though I have stopped in the bar for their fish soup which I love. The reason i didn't return is if you really are committed to your restaurant and you can't put a great example out on the table, don't participate in restaurant week. Rialto's food was well below par the RW I went, showed no interest or creativity, and felt like it was illustrating contempt for the "cheap" diner. I was a real fan of their food but there are enough choices so i don't have to reward somebody with attitude. L'Espalier for example has never made me feel less well served if I go on the less expensive wine night, for lunch, or for an anniversary blow-out. It still burns me that Rialto thought it was ok to turn out a crummy meal because it was cheap old RW.
On this year's RW, we had lunch today at B&G Oysters. The service was beyond bad into "has the place gone bonkers" level, but the food was lovely and the manager tried to make it up to us by comping us a very nice wine which i thought was gracious. The lobster bisque, perch, and panna cotta were each very good and my companion loved his salmon croquettes and salt caramel gelato. I don't know if the service problem was short-staffing or a slammed kitchen, but I do appreciate that the problem was recognized by a nice gesture and I know we got more than our 20.08 worth, so I'll be going back there.
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Rialto just doesn't handle RW well. Spouse and I tried it last year and the food was mediocre at best. The upside is we didn't pay full price for the meal. That said we won't be going back anytime soon.
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Anytime you pay more than what the food is worth to you, it's a bad bargain, regardless of the level of the price relative to "full price". My guess is that most of these restaurants are not taking losses on the RW meals---hence you really are paying full price for what you are getting.
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Agreed. And I think you can often tell from the menus they post (or don't) which places take RW seriously and which don't. I crossed Rialto off our list for this week when they and a handful of others couldn't be bothered to get together an RW menu early enough to have it posted to the website. We're headed to Gargoyle's tonight; their RW menu (http://www.bostonusa.com/rw08/menus/g... shows a wide selection, no skimping, and (I'd argue) a commitment to RW. I'd rather go to a place like this during RW -- a place that's willing to cut their take ($) during RW in exchange for good publicity and repeat business -- than a place that skimps on those who might not be willing to pay full price any other week.
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That Gargoyles menu looks great. I'll be interested to hear how your meal turns out.
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I was there tonight and it was fabulous. More detail to follow tomorrow.
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