This is a BYOB establishment, and they have two copper tubs filled with ice near the hostess stand in which to keep white wines chilled, rather than trying to set smaller ice buckets at individual tables. The restaurant does not have its own parking lot, but there is street parking as well as a public parking lot down the street. The restaurant space is small, and diners are seated close together. The dining room is somewhat open to the kitchen, so you can see what is going on behind the scenes, particularly when you need to pass through the kitchen to access the restrooms. Service was incredibly slow, as most reviews claim. We often dine at restaurants that have 20+ course tasting menus served over the course of a few hours, but even we found the service to be painfully slow, with lots of time elapsing between courses. The restaurant serves an herb popcorn amuse-bouche, in keeping with the restaurant name, but we still are not clear on the significance of the restaurant name itself - something to do with the Lenape Indians - but we are not sure how that culture relates to the restaurant owner or location.
The cornbread served with local honey and cold butter slices was fantastic - easily the best part of our meal - but even that complimentary item took a long time to be delivered (probably 30 minutes after we sat down). We elected to order the 5-course blind tasting menu for $50 per person, which in retrospect, was a mistake, because the regular menu featured far more interesting items (such as bison tartare and teres major, an unusual but tender cut of beef). We think that one of the issues with timeliness at this restaurant is the fact that it serves the tasting menu on busy weekend nights, which calls for chef creativity and thinking on-the-fly when the kitchen is already bombarded with orders. Because we could see the chefs in the kitchen, we could see no sense of urgency from them as they prepared food - they were happy to chat with staff and customers passing through their workspace, when their time might better have been served with producing food. (In their defense, the three chefs seemed very young.) Our server was very knowledgeable about the food and the ingredients, even though she, too, must have been surprised at the blind tasting options. (Another couple seated directly next to us also ordered the tasting menu, and they received a few different dishes than we did.)
Overall, we think that this restaurant has potential, but needs to speed up its service before we would return.
No comments:
Post a Comment