charcoal

shameless arrogance. four of just left charcoal tonight hungry. after trying to rationalize the irrationally arrogant menu, one is quickly in the corner of just needing to pick something off this silly list.
the portions were so small, one had to laugh. one dinner boasted a 7.5oz steak with a creamed spinach side. what came were four slices of tenderloin. the 'spinach' was exactly 1 teaspoon of green liquid garnish. two of us ordered pastas. the pasta serving sizes were each equal to a hospital bedside oatmeal cup. at least in the hospital one also gets eggs and toast as well! my pasta's menu description read to be a "pepperoni bolognese", whereas this oatmeal serving contained not a single visible speck of anything resembling a protein. this is not asmallplate, this is a dinner. red sauce with some mozzarella under a broiler. pitiful. insulting. arrogant. if these pastas sat next to a real steak, which charcoal is also unable to produce, they would remain barely noticeable.

thesmallplates redefine 'small'. so we order some to share and kick things off. on average, two bites (yes bites!) per plate at $14 each. four people, $170, for a dinner that would still not respectably feed two.

we were there saturday night prime time to see a poor showing of people. it seems we are not alone in being tired of taking insults from these pompies.

my advice. skip asmallplate at $14 of overstated whatever. you won't miss it anyway. save one of your byo wines for the large pizza you'll need to order somewhere else after your being insulted at charcoal.

if you are hungry and want to be fed good food and be satisfied don't go here. if you are a foodie and are into expensive butsmallcreations go ahead. this used to be a local yocal place around 10 years ago where i would take my kids after pre-school. unfortunately, nothing stays the
same.

what happed to the charcoal steaks?. went here on a thursday night. didn't realize that was now a find dining french restaurant. we were very dissappointed with the food, verysmallportions and very high prices. i was really looking forward to have a steak cooked on the grill. it was january and i wanted a taste of summer, but all that was on the menu was a hangar steak not charcoal grilled. in fact why do they call it charcoal. nothing is charcoaled grilled.are they trying to compete with the yardley inn? oh well i won't be back....by the way it is not kid friendly..

has potential.. i found this restaurant on urban spoon. sounded like an interesting place to try especially being a byob!! tried to make reservations but was told they only take reservations for a party of 8 or more... but max wait is usually only 10 min. our party of 4 arrived at 6:30pm and we waited 25 min. things seemed disorganized right from the start. a party of 5 had a "reservation" but they walked in just as their table was given away since they were 10 min. late!
menu choices were amazing and i wanted to try everything! so, for my main course i chose the roasted butternut squash soup, almond cinnamon puff for $6.00 and for my main course i chose the 13 hr. pork belly, bourbon pear apple sauce, honey corn bread and peanut butter powder for $17. my husband had the hamburger with a fried egg and pickled onions $11. our friends chose the grilled romaine as their first course for $7. and one had the ny strip (petite size) for $19 and the other had the filet medallion $22.
the good news is everyone enjoyed their food. the bad news is we waited for 45 min. for our first course and then about another 35 for the second course. we luckily filled up on their stale bread and got tipsy on our own wine! being a "french american bistro" the portions were very, very small. my soup was served in a great big bowl but i think i squeezed out 4 spoonfuls. my pork was very tasty but very fatty...the peanutbutter powder added a great dimension to the dish but the pear sauce was almost invisable. i almost got the lobster cake ($16) for my main course but i saw one on the next table and even tho it was served on a large plate it was very tiny! (so glad i did not get that!)
we were offered a desert menu but after waiting sooo long for our table, meals and thesmallportions, we knew that would be a bad idea.
when we were seated we enjoyed the view of the river but once it got dark the view went away so did the ambience. (maybe flood lights could change that.)
i will not rush back to this restaurant. we were told they were a man short in the kitchen, maybe that would help, but if i did go back i would eat before going there or i would order the delicious burger my husband had!