02/04/09

The place tries really hard to deliver fine dining but falls short.

by mollymmm

It's kind of sad, expensive, but sad nonetheless.

The decor of the restaurant is impressive, but frankly my chair was uncomfortable and the table was quite small, even for two people. The music is techno/trance/rave which is okay I guess at least it wasn't very loud.

I started with the curried oysters. The oysters were perfectly cooked, but there was just no curry taste to it at all. They were served with an apple/spinach salad which might have been better if it was slightly warm. The presentation of the dish was a bit contrived and simply added to the overall disappointment.

My main was the pan seared rare tuna with sesame. Again, a rather disappointing dish. The sesame simply overwhelmed the taste of the tuna, which by the way was lukewarm and just not that good. The soba noodles and spinach (again with the spinach) salad was good and seasoned quite well, but frankly I didn't pay that much just for the salad.

A brief glance at the desert menu didn't yield anything of interest, although they did offer a green tea creme brulee. However, my dining experience did not predict that the kitchen could produce a good creme brulee, so I passed, went to A Southern Season and got some good quality chocolate instead. At least that part of the meal was quite nice.

Overall, though not exactly a "bad" place to eat, the quality of the food certainly didn't rise to fine dining, and certainly didn't match the price.

Of all the places in Chapel Hill that purportedly offer fine dining, I will admit that this one tried the hardest. It's almost painful to note that all the trappings were in place, but the food simply wasn't.

• Pros: Nice decor, attentive wait staff, lots of parking.
• Cons: Disappointing food.

12/14/08

Good food but easily the worst waiter I have ever had at any restaurant

by BostonKO

Ok, so the place is really nice and huge, there was a Christmas party going on so we sat upstairs and were waited on by a Chris Kattan look a like (old SNL cast member), didn't get his name b/c he quickly offended me so much that I was ready to leave but decided to try and not let it bother me. When he was reading off the specials I asked about something I read on the website about half price apps.

Well, he looked at me like I was crazy and asked if I had a coupon, to which I replied "no" it was on the website, and he condescendingly said, "unless you have a coupon, like from a coupon book or something they pass out on campus, then there are no half price apps, plus we don't run any specials on the weekend since that is a time when we actually get a lot of business and don't have to offer coupons to get people to come in" and then started laughing at me. Well, I was ready to walk out b/c I'm not a college student, can easily afford a very nice meal and did not need to be treated like an idiot. Since it was a friends birthday I decided to stay and stick it out. It only got worse as he didn't come around for long periods at a time and you could tell he just didn't want to be there. In the end as we were waiting to get our check for about 20 mins, he was folding napkins for the next day and we had to get somebody's attention. In all, the food was good, service was soo bad that if I ever do go back to this place I will make sure we don't get this a-hole again!!! Go to their site at ghgrestaurants > see Sat night specials. I was right and he was obviously unaware or didn't care about his company's website. To help you avoid this guy, he is about 35 years old, black curly hair and probably 5'8". On and don't get the calamari, it's really greasy.

• Pros: Nice bar, friendly good looking hostess.
• Cons: Worst waiter I've ever had!!!

12/31/07

Cheapy Portions

by gigiewilliams

Good food but only if you have an eating disorder.....lame lame lame lame lame lame portions!!! I've travelled all over the US and this is one of the worst rip-offs yet. Shame on the owners. You'll leave hungry and disappointed. We weren't going to say anything until a table of 12 next to us had a five minute conversation about how small their portions were too. We actually leaned over and talked to them for a minute about it! Unbelievable how this joint has pushed the limits of acceptable amount of food per price! Shame on you Spice Street....we left hungry after dropping over 120 bucks.

• Pros: Food tastes good.
• Cons: Ridiculously small portions and extremely over-priced.