yeah, what's with the salt??. we have been wanting to try thisplaceout for a few years, so we went for my husband's birthday with several relatives. i suppose of minor concern was the fact that several staff members (including our waiter) knew it was my husband's birthday, but nothing at all special was done about it, nor was it acknowledged in any way. okay, so apparently recognizing special occasions is not their thing... not a super big deal, but i thought i'd mention in case this happens to be why you are going.
the outdoor patio dining area is gorgeous. however, it was a little cold and quite windy, so we opted to sit inside. what a contrast! big, plain, drab, empty, boxy, boring room, with poor aesthetics. we had to yell at each other in order to hear one another (sort of), and there weren't even that many other people seated in this room to excuse it from feeling like we were eating in a school cafeteria.
our waiter was friendly enough. he forgot a few minor things and took away every single one of my (4!) forks for eating my actual dinner, but nothing unforgivable. nothing outstanding though, either.
i realize this isn't "fast food", and we don't expect that at all, but, the food really did take forever. i don't know how long it was from the time of order until we got our salads, but at that time we were told it would be another 15-20 minutes, when, in fact, it took 30 minutes to receive our dinners after the salads. there were two children in our party, who had to be taken outside and walked around and entertained twice for 20 minutes while waiting for our food.
none of these things individually would i consider deal-breakers, except for the fact that we spent a total of $280+ for 7 people (2 of them children under the age of 7), so i do think we should be able to expect more. so far, aplacelike applebee's is doing better than this (and at about 1/3 of the price.)
and then the food comes. (the deal-breaker for my relatives.) my husband said his meal was good, and the food we ordered for the kids was okay. (although, we ordered them an "adult" meal of gnocchi to share, and i couldn't believe how small the serving was! in any other restaurant i've been in, the serving would have been 2-3 times more.)
the side salad that i ordered (a la carte - $7!), was tiny!!! seriously?!?! they think it's worth a dollar for each little salad leaf?! (i'm really not exaggerating.) the lamb that i ordered (which my waiter claimed was a "meal and a half", was only that by comparison to the other meals.) i did expect it to be fatty, because lamb is... but i didn't find hardly any meat, and was in no way full when i left. certainly no "and-a-half" meal leftover.
the lamb was fairly salty, but, managed to stay on the high end of "still acceptable/edible" to me. however, the mashed potatoes that my aunt and i had? the description left by a previous commenter, "it was eye squinting salty", is perfectly accurate. my aunt could only choke down two bites before she gave up. my other aunt said her meal was quite salty too and was surprised that her squash, which would usually been on the sweeter side, obviously had added salt.
to me, over-salting is an attempt to make up for a lack of culinary skill. "when in doubt, salt the hell out of it!" either the chef doesn't have much talent at using other ingredients and seasonings to bring out delicious flavors, or he doesn't think he does...or he enjoys snacking on salt licks.
in any event, my relatives definitely won't be back. there is a small chance i would be willing to give it another try - but only on a nice day so that we could sit out on the lovely patio and order from the (significantly less expensive, therefore less financially risky) lunch menu and i'll ask if there are any low-salt options.