Overrated.

There's a restaurant in the town where I live that a lot of people love. It's located very close to my place of employment, and many fancy dinners have been held there before events in my building. I've only been there twice: once for cocktails and apps, once for lunch - today.
And I'm here to tell you: this place is overrated. Everything is WAY too fancy. I didn't want a braised duck sandwich or a pizza with peas, so I ordered the plainest thing on the menu - a grilled three-cheese sandwich with tomatoes, and a side salad.
OK, my sandwich was awful. Way too much flavor in the cheese. No, I wasn't expecting Velveeta, but they used what I like to call "garnish cheeses," or "salad cheeses." I LOVE gorgonzola on a salad, but as a main component on a sandwich? Too much. And the tomatoes were drenched in balsamic vinegar - so much wang that my I'm sure my face puckered. Then there's the salad, also awful, but to the extreme opposite. It was a pile of greens. Listen up, restauranteurs: if you're serving a pile of greens, call it "a pile of greens." Lettuce on its own is NOT a salad. At a minimum, dressing is required; throw in some shredded carrot, a banana, a walnut - or some gorgonzola - and now you're talking.

Next time I'm invited along, I'm going to have to make an excuse to not go.

bad apps, bad cocktails, bad lunch - D- (points for free)