monday lunch

[guzzirider]

They dont take reservations but empty tables in the window are always reserved, in more than a few cases empty during the entirety of my meal, its just BS.

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LOL! The *best* is when your waiting for a table to free up, but you can't wait at the bar either because Neil's dog is taking up 3 seats for it's nap... it made me understand why somebody tried to dog-nap the pooch a couple years back...

__Jason

[KatieLoeb]

Yo V! Why are you harshin' on Rouge?? You are of course entitled to your opinion, but you need to explain yourself, not just come in with a surgical sniper attack and leave. Discussion encouraged. Ad hominem attacks on establishments, not so much without backup.

Katie, before you ask me to put on my assless chaps for the spanking, hear me out....

Yes my statement does sound a bit harsh but I feel it is accurate.

It is based on several meals over the last 2 years that I actually swore never to set foot in there again.

Thus I shall qualify.

They have 2 good dishes.

The burger.

The fries.

Everything else I have had is just mediocre at best, it would be simply classified as OK but factoring in the egregious prices........it becomes mediocre.

Dont get me wrong, my opinions are meaningless outside the context of those who go to restaurants primarily for the food and the expectation that it is presented as described and prepared properly without reliance on embellishment of prose.

Here are a few snippets of my last few meals....

Oxtail ravioli with oxtail that tastes like it was braised in water.

Pasta dough for said ravioli that is 4 times as thick as it should be which becomes further worse when you double up the edges for ravioli.

Hardly any filling in the ravioli.

The restaurant uses salt the most where it is needed the least and vice versa.

Most of the food is consistently underseasoned.

The butter they serve on the table is covered with a copious amount of what they call "Fleur de Sel"

The "fleur de sel" is of a huge crstal size that it is impractical for butter, all you get is butter and salt bombs in your mouth.

Furthemore the aforementioned "Fleur de sel" isnt actually Fleur de sel and is obviously "Sel Gris"

which costs 10 times less and is noticed because it is a murky gray as opposed to the same crystalline WHITE of Maldon.......and it tastes different.

The Salads are either overdressed like zsa zsa gabor or devoid of any distribution of dressing.

The Mac and cheese with bacon is ABSURDLY rich to be inedible.

The cheese plate has boring cheeses considering dibruno is around the corner.

Mashed potatoes $7

1/4 lb of spinach $7

The apps range from $13 to $17 which is just hubris

They dont take reservations but empty tables in the window are always reserved, in more than a few cases empty during the entirety of my meal, its just BS.

The entrees hover around $26 to $36

The "prime" steak is not prime.

The shrimp and lobster spring rolls have barely either seafood in them that they ought to be renamed cabbage, carrot and jicama spring rolls.

On the face of it, these would seem "nasty" but after dropping serious coin on bad food, what can you say.

The lady who manages it is very professional as is the bartender "tommy" but virtually everyone of the servers make it seem like they are doing you a favor by allowing you to eat there.

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No chaps for the spanking. They just get in the way.

Listen, I'm fine with your reasons now that you've laid them out. I do, however, have a problem with you swooping in and offering to pay someone not to eat somewhere without benefit of the explanation. And I'm not just defending them as my former employers, I expect you all to be fair and state your case, not just say "That Place SUCKS!!!" and run away without any commentary that might edify the rest of us as to your logic. There will always be cases where our tastes are not the same. But I expect all of you to conduct yourselves with the same standards you'd expect if it were your businesses or personalities being reviewed and critiqued here. That's all.

The Rittenhouse real estate is expensive. I'm not making excuses for it, I'm just saying I used to write those checks, so I get what the going rate per square foot is. And for most of the undiscriminating Rittenhouse wannabes, that's the price they're willing to pay. And the "reserved" tables are for the benefit of those who are so easily fooled into buying into the faux hipness. If there aren't available tables the place must be good, right? Meh. It is BS, but some of us recognize it when we smell/see it. Others don't and there are plenty of establishments in town, some at not such tony addresses or with uglier views that are happy to have a license to print their own cash and to make change for those who are buying it.

[Capaneus]

Listen, I'm fine with your reasons now that you've laid them out.  I do, however, have a problem with you swooping in and offering to pay someone not to eat somewhere without benefit of the explanation.  And I'm not just defending them as my former employers, I expect you all to be fair and state your case, not just say "That Place SUCKS!!!" and run away without any commentary that might edify the rest of us as to your logic.  There will always be cases where our tastes are not the same.  But I expect all of you to conduct yourselves with the same standards you'd expect if it were your businesses or personalities being reviewed and critiqued here.  That's all.

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Ah. No, I think. Because if I'm talking about my own business, I'm going to feel constraints that I don't think are appropriate on this site. It's bad enough that a couple of people I like know PD=Capaneus, and it just feels crappy to badmouth their places - with the net result that I've mostly shut myself out of the conversation about their restaurants. If we are going to have to display actual empathy for every restaurateur in town, well, the result is going to be what Those Other People in Leffland said it would be.

I think it's fine to ask people who just say "It sux!!!" to back up their opinion. But as long as they're people who can back up their opinion, sometimes "It sux!" pretty much says it all.

[Vadouvan]

Ah. No, I think. Because if I'm talking about my own business, I'm going to feel constraints that I don't think are appropriate on this site. It's bad enough that a couple of people I like know PD=Capaneus, and it just feels crappy to badmouth their places - with the net result that I've mostly shut myself out of the conversation about their restaurants. If we are going to have to display actual empathy for every restaurateur in town, well, the result is going to be what Those Other People in Leffland said it would be.

I think it's fine to ask people who just say "It sux!!!" to back up their opinion. But as long as they're people who can back up their opinion, sometimes "It sux!" pretty much says it all.

Pedro you make an excellent point, the point isnt to trash a restaurant which was why my initial response was short. I wouldnt actually pay people not to eat there, it was a measure of how strongly I felt about the service and mediocrity.

Fact is e-gullet isnt craigslist or foobooz and the people in this forum who mostly know each other in person should offer succinctly accurate opinions. Frankly anything said about rouge isnt going to slow it down even for a hiccup but sometimes it's ok to say it simply is NOT good.

Being forced to expand on that in full detail does way more harm that a short comment which may seem like a snaek attack.

[KatieLoeb]

Yeah - except this forum isn't just about those of us that know each other and hang out here at eGullet. It isn't just our personal billboard in cyberspace for our opinions on local restaurants. It's a respectable media outlet that shows up in Google searches and is referenced in the New York Times and other print media. We need to remember that out of towners or writers might be checking out a particular local restaurant or looking for dining or drinking trends in Philly and deserve to find better than the equivalent of graffiti on a junior high bathroom wall. Why do you think I care about having the thread titles be easily searchable or change them when they aren't? Just to keep your ever present wit in check? Not so much.