Jon T.
Yelp
Absolutely bizarre experience. I read many online recommendations for Turkey Red before we visited Alaska, and our visit here ended in regret.
We finished a nice hike nearby and came in for a late lunch around 1pm. Upon entering the restaurant, we were greeted by a friendly hostess that sat us in the elevated section with a couple menus. We perused the menus and noted the fresh salads at the tables adjacent. We decided on what we wanted, and waited for service. And waited.
One table next to us finished their meal, and a young server cleaned up in a couple trips. She didn't look at us the entire time. We patiently sat with our menus down, and peered around. No other servers were around, and my SO noted that everyone working looked very young.
After about 30 minutes, she said she needed to use the restroom, so we went to the front to ask about bathrooms and service. The greeter was very apologetic and said someone would be right with us, and provided directions to the restrooms.
I sat back down and a server approached me - guess who? The young lady who cleaned off the table next to us and ignored us the entire time.
Okay...I politely ordered the Spanikopita, Italian lunch special with side salad, and Portobello Mushroom sandwich with side of chicken and split pea soup. The SO came back and said there was a large group of workers just loitering at the bathroom. Maybe just a break time, no big deal.
Our food came out reasonably fast, starting with...gyrokopita?
A young man had brought the wrong dish so I let him know: "sorry, I don't think we ordered this - we ordered the spanikopita." He looked annoyed and said "oh, we ran out of that, so she probably put this order in instead."
I have NEVER heard of a server taking the liberty of replacing a customer's order without first consulting them. To be fair, he offered to take it back, but I just told the poor guy that we'd just try this instead.
Then our sandwiches came out, with the wrong soup - it was a cup of clam chowder instead of chicken and split pea. I didn't even bother asking if they had run out at this point, we just wanted to eat.
- Gyrokopita ($10.25, they only charged us $9 for spana at least) - Very mediocre. I love phyllo, but the ground beef filling was dryer than the Sahara. The tzatziki was okay but just couldn't save it.
- 1/2 Portobello Mushroom Sandwich, side of Clam Chowder ($8.75) - Pretty small sandwich but SO says it tasted fine. We both liked the clam chowder, it was full of vegetables and had an interesting spice to it.
- Italian Sandwich, side salad ($14) - I was originally sold by the description: Italian on Rosemary, with Pastrami, charcuterie, provolone, balsamic vinegar, lettuce and bruschetta. How do you put charcuterie and bruschetta, completely different Italian dishes, on a sandwich?
The rosemary sourdough was tasty, but so over-toasted that the roof of my mouth was raw for a couple days. The pastrami was generous, fresh, and really tasty. There was another dried meat (I'm guessing prosciutto?) that was good when it was edible, but more than half of it was a dried, unchewable tendon gristle. Someone slicing the meat was not paying attention. I literally had to stop after every bite to pull a large, inedible chunk of gristle out of my mouth. The salad was fresh and delicious, with red-spined greens that look like a fresh chard, topped with a tangy dressing.
We finish eating and sit around for a while. Our waters are long finished. We fight the trend at this point, and I decide to just walk up to the counter and pay. There's no one around except for our hostess, who rings me up quickly, god bless her heart.
I love the local, farm-to-table emphasis; it's a great way to help the community and help make people aware of what's regionally available. It's clear that some dishes are significantly enhanced by this aspect, and others are on the right track but need a lot of attention and care.
The abysmal service is an absolute disrespect to everything else this place stands for. We should have walked out and saved ourselves the trouble.