when did it get bad?. i hadn't been to bardenay in a few years, but i swear it used to be good.
first, the whole open seating thing can work, but servers and bussers have really got to be on the ball. i don't mind having to wait a bit for a table on a friday night, but it creates an awkward sort of mood when having to scramble and rush to tables, and inevitably there's always that one jerk who's willing to do anything to snake a table from you, and personally if i'm a restaurant owner or manager i don't want random aholes be the ones dictating the first impression of a place.
so, finally find a table and stand next to it for nearly 10 minutes as a bussers and servers pass us multiple times (like 4 times for the busser alone). i finally had to go request someone bus the table, asking her if she could send someone to bus it, and got a snotty response from the server as if i were demanding she herself do it, god forbid!
again, open seating can work, and i understand friday nights can be busy, but they seemed severely under staffed (our waitress was literally running between tables at times) and it took us forever to get a table, get it bussed, and then on top of that we sat for a very long time waiting for water, then waiting for menus, then waiting for our order to be taken, then waiting for drinks, then waiting for food. friday night or not, it was not very impressing.
okay, something good: drink from the bar was excellent.
and....
fish and chips. fish was a dark brown, looking like hunks of bark. flaky fish is good, crunchy and craggy, not-so-much. not convinced beer battered and bread crumbs is good for frying fish. makes the batter so heavy and get overly crunchy that it becomes a chore to eat, but shrug, their restaurant.
mashed potatoes weren't bad. not doubting they were 'garlic' mash, though, as it was more garlic than even i, an avid garlic lover, could stand. i could see many people being overwhelmed by so much garlic.
the tartar sauce was said to be spiced up with chili powder, which was true, to say the least. i love spicy food, and it was way too strong even for me, and felt very out of place in a tartar sauce.
lamb and beef meatloaf sandwich. seemed like a good idea. it was a favorite of mine at bittercreek before they took it off, so i was hoping for something as tasty. it was remarkably bland. worse still, it was mushy. mushy, tasteless meatloaf.... didn't know that was even possible when using lamb! and wasn't very exciting otherwise. carmelized onions were a nice touch, but the fixing of cheddar cheese, mayo, green leaf lettuce and sourdough were underwhelming. and seriously, the meatloaf felt like oatmeal in my mouth, and didn't taste much stronger.
the french fries tasted okay, basically fresh from the freezer... kind of like the fries you can get in a cup from one of those french fry vending machines. yawn.
the mango 'bbq' sauce is pretty good, though. next time i might just order a bowl of that.
overall it was very disappointing because they used to be good (i think). and i can forgive terrible service on a friday night (but seriously, when it's more busy, maybe have more people working?), but can't forgive bland, uninspired food on top of that. or worse, over-inspired food where instead of just making something good, they tried to 'spice it up' when it shouldn't be necessary.
i can't tell if i'm just getting higher expectations as i get older, or if the 'good' spots inboisehave just shifted, but this is another case of a restaurant that seems to have stopped trying to get better, and seems noticeably worse that it was a few years ago.