date: 12/28/04
location: minneapolis
grade: d+

abilene, why can't you be true?

a restaurant suffers when it's not planned that people will show up. they staffed for a regular tuesday, not a holiday season tuesday. this made it not at all happy to be here.

there was only one thing that i could not put down to understaffing that made me not so very happy, and that was the restroom (2 stalls, 1 featuring a broken lock, freezing, with very little water pressure in the sink).

they're only getting the + part because after we spoke to the manager (which we didn't even do at bobino, if i recall, as bad as that service was) and they were decent about it, and after someone (ok, me) left something behind, they did come after us (me...) with it.

it took slightly too long to get to the table to take the drink orders when two of us first got there. sadly, that slightly too long was the shortest wait period of the evening. even for tableside guacamole it was a 15 minute wait to get it to the table, and that just requires dumping things in a bowl after you cut two avocaos in half and remove them from the shell. the guacamole was pretty good, though. they brought chips with it, but no salsa.

having ordered the fajita bar (my error), i went up to it and brought back some salsas from it. made sense to me, as the server believed we were mostly invisible. i couldn't get my water glass refilled throughout the whole time when the entrees were on, no one stopped to see how things were. that was especially bad as one meal was bordering on unacceptable.

that was the burrito with black beans and rice. two people had it before, and ordered it again. this time it was different- it was mostly very very spicy beans with a bit of rice, mostly without cheese. it was overly spicy unless you had a bit of a texas palate. this is minnesota, people, spicy is usually a bad idea without a warning, especially as they both said it had never been spicy at all before. i believe they ate the tortilla and left the filling.

but that could be where the spice went from the fajitas. i would have even settled for salt and pepper on them, but no. everything on that fajita bar tasted bland. black bean puree, salsas, chicken fajitas, tofu fajitas, etc. there was no salt and pepper on the table to try any post-assembly fajita correction there. the cheddar cheese shreds had the most life in it out of everything. odd, considering that it's a texas fusion place, that the fajitas at the local bar down your street (in anytown) would have been more seasoned.

other food was brought to the table cold (some of the apps on the mixed plate you can order- 4 items for $15. a good idea, when well staffed, i assume), some overbreaded (the oysters). but were otherwise ok. these kinds of things happen when the kitchen is understaffed.

most of the time we were unable to get the server's attention for anything. it was bad enough that we were free to comment on the lack of service right at the table without having to lower out voices lest anyone who works there hear us most of the time, as there was no one to do so anywhere near our table. siberia, that's where we were (fairly cold in both places, too, and dark in both, too). we were invisible people in siberia.

it was so bad that someone at our table who is really nice and not as pickyass as myself thought it had to be more than my bad restaurant karma inheritance bringing the table down, and spoke with the manager. they were generous in adjusting the bill. ironically, after we were ready to pay it, we almost had to flag the manager down again to get someone to take the payment.

when the table was being cleared, a used knife was dropped, and hit my leg. did someone say even the vaguest of i don't really mean it but sorry? nope. nothing even close, unless 'oops' means sorry in a language i am unfamiliar with. sigh.

and by the way, having the tsunami tragedy on cnn on most of the screens in the place, visible from all dinner table... that was an odd choice for the place to have on.

in the end, a poll of the table that some of the people would grade higher on the food than the service grade (which was averaging in the d range). i didn't agree, as three of five meals were not that great to pretty poor, and two others had problem parts. however, most people said they would be back. perhaps for the margaritas (which everyone enjoyed who ordered them) and chips (they were nice, also). would i go there for dinner? not really anytime soon, if ever.