RW --Tangerino- Big Let Down
Went to Tangerino for RW last night and it was,as the heading says, a big let down. We arrived and were seated in a little tent area, which was the highlight of the night. The hostess left and said she would return with the wine and cocktail list. We never saw her again. It took over 15 minutes for our server to show up (which given that they state as you walk in that RW customers have 90 minutes to eat is pushing it).We ordered our drinks, which took another 15 minutes to arrive. Once the drinks arrived we placed our order. Which was a partial let down b/c what was on the on-line RW menu wasn't the same as the menu they gave us.
There were for of us and we ordered the following: the Cuscous Royale which was made with a lamb filet, the 7 layer veggie couscous, wild salmon w/ fingeling potatoes & veggies, chicken tangine. Appetizers were salad w/ raosted pistachios & asparagus, grilled jumbo shrimp & a soup. 3 of us ordered the chocolate souffle (the chcolate mousse had been taken off) and 1 orderd the sorbet.
The apps came out and we started to giggle b/c the "jumbo" shrimp was 2 shrimp cut in half to look like they were giving you 4 shrimp. The soup was about 1/2 of a cup and the salad was missing some of it's ingredients. These took about 20 minutes to come out. Dinner was another 15 minutes to come out.
The lamb sirlon w/ cousous ended up being a lamb shank. the person that ordered that wouldn't have gotten it knowing it was the shank. And the person that got the chicken wanted the shank but it was supposedly no longer on the menu. So they split their meal but the chicken was totally dry. The 7 veggie cousous was a small entree and it wasn't anything special. They forgot to bring the broth out that went w/ the cousous until about 10 minutes after the meal arrived. My salmon dish was just ok. I will say that the salmon was tender but had no flavor. And the potaotes & veggies that came w/ it was about 1/3 of a cup.. not much.. luckily I ate some of the couscous from the person that got the shank.
When the waiter finally came back to ""check on things" we mentioned the shank and he just looked at us w/ a blank face. he finally said "do you want me to get you something else?" But by this time we had already eaten 1/2 the meal b/c we were starving and it took him 20 minutes to check on us after dinner was served.
Dessert came and I took one bite of the souffle as did my friend and we just looked at each other. It was mushy and "wet." It's the only way I could describe it. We didn't eat it..the sorbet was nothing special either. Honestly the stuff I can get at the supermarket is better. During the dessert fiasco we are waiting for our waiter so we can order coffee... he finallly shows up and we order it and that takes forever. He comes back to ask if we want anything else and how was everything and I say "it wasn't what we were expecting and I'll take the check." He didn't say a word and just left the check. Normally I tip very well but this guy got 15% b/c he stunk.
What kills me is the managers were walking around and they could see our table was empty, no waiter, etc, etc and they didn't do anything either. The bill came to $179 and I was so bummed b/c it wasn't worth 1/2 of that. If my meal was great as well as the service I wouldn't care what the bill would have cost. All I kept thinking was "I could have gotten a lot of godzilla maki for $204 (that was w/ tip).
My feeling is if you don't want to do RW then don't do it. Don't ignore your customers b/c we are part of RW. Don't let your waiters ignore RW customers. Don't change the menu (I can understand if you run out of something but that wasn't the case). It was poorly, poorly managed and i will not go back again. It's their loss b/c we eat out a lot as do our friends and we are big on recommendations but if I recommend this place to you I must not like you! It was a total thumbs down.
Did i mention the music was blaring so loudly that we were sitting in our tent and still couldn't here each other??? I don't think I would do a dinner for RW again.. that is how dissapointing last night was.
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Boston_Otter
Aug 17, 2008 05:03 PM
I can't agree more with your review of Tangerino's RW experience. I went there last RW, and my experience mirrored yours very very closely: our waiter disappeared for nearly 20 minutes after seating us, causing us to flag down a manager to get another waiter to take our drink order. The menu was entirely different than the online version, and the portions were just laughable -- I had the same shrimp dish you describe.
I had a lot of excellent meals during RW. Tangerino was not one of them. I can't see myself ever going back there.
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I agree with your statement about restaurants and their treatment of customers during RW. Husband and I have stopped participating in this because we end up feeling like second class citizens and deciding that we were getting no "deal" with the quality of meals offered. It often has left us with a bad feeling about the restaurant and having no desire to go back. I would much rather spend more and have a good experience.
