Navarre

12/06/09

Awesome food, definitely worth a try!

by normanpaperman at Citysearch

I'm not sure what the last reviewer was expecting, but I've been for lunch and now dinner with my wife. Both were great experiences. We were seated promptly, received great attention throughout our meal and thoroughly enjoyed the delicious food. The chef prepares great, season appropriate food, all of which was incredible. His duck breast was the best that I've had. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who wants an enjoyable small plate experience

• Pros: Farm to table food, great selection of wines

11/16/09

Glad it was free

by gjb71 at Citysearch

I'm not the type of person to usually gripe about something I don't like, but when its really bad, I just feel I have to.

Fortunately on our part, we were given a gift certificate so the meal was free. If I had been required to pay for the food we ate, I would have taken a bite of everything and sent it back. There was not a single item that we had that made this enjoyable. The bread was burnt on the ends and crusty (not to mention they charge you for bread and olive oil.) and the center of the bread was full of holes. We ordered olives as an appetizer which were the best part; I mean, you can't screw up an olive can you?

As far as the meal went, we ordered the buffalo steak and the chicken which we were told had a smoked chili flavor to the sauce. It was neither. It was a dill bland flavor that tasted horrible. I was hoping the sauce I'd want to use the bread for, but the sauce and bread together didn't help either of them. The buffalo was chewy and didn't come with any real seasoning or sauce. Just 6 thinly sliced pieces of meat. The vegetables we ordered were the braised greens and mushrooms; the mushrooms were decent, but the greens were wet flavorless kale. We decided to have dessert and tried the almond cake. The top layer of chocolate was so hard I couldn't cut my fork through it. We seriously were laughing about the experience, as nothing even came close to filling our appetite, and our bill came to $45.

The service wasn't horrible, but far from great, and if you like to freeze every time the door opens, you're in luck. As I looked at the 4 other diners across from us who were just beginning their meal, they had the same stunned reaction on their faces when they saw their plate sizes and crunchy bread. Needless to say, I don't think we were the only ones left with a bad taste in our mouths. Won't be going back.

• Pros: I can't think of any
• Cons: Food, service, ambiance

10/18/09

NEVAH EVAH AGAIN!

by Tarot Chick at Citysearch

My fiance and I were being taken out for a Thank You dinner by a friend that we helped with a project and his girlfriend. I suggested we try here. (Cue Cher's "If I Could Turn Back Time")

Im not an unreasonable person. A popular restaurant on a Friday night; I expected a wait. No problem. I was pleasantly surprised when a friendly male server (who turned out to be the ONLY saving grace about our entire experience) informed us that our wait would be short. Maybe we should've clarified what "short" meant to him. In the meantime he brings us this RIDICULOUSLY, unnecessarily complicated menu/ordering system, a brief explanation of it that was shouted over the loud din of the diners and then left us to wonder if there was going to be an informational video to follow that would further clarify.

Forty five minutes later he comes by to apologize and say it looks like the table he thought was going to free up for us was ordering dessert. As my party smiled and said okay and goodbye and made our way outside, we realized there was a place to sit and eat outside. We should have just kept going!!! He said he would be happy to serve us out there and offered us some bread and water. Returning with menus he then says oh..the table was paying their bill and getting ready to leave after all. (Merry go round, much?) and said go ahead and order outside and he'd make sure we were seated inside when the table cleared and the food would be right after us.

We were finally seated. Happy in the knowledge that our order had gone in over 10 minutes earlier, we were sure we'd be eating at any moment and we were starving. Another TWENTY minutes passed and our good mood we had collectively managed to sustain was quickly turning sour, and FINALLY food arrives. Now I realize this is a tapas joint. Which is why we ordered mostly large plates. But apparently just like the waiter had his ideas of what a "short" wait was, the chef also has his ideas of what a "large" plate is. $20 for the large lamb plate equated to 3 small slabs of meat on 5 inch bones. $8 for a small serving of vinegar mustard chicken equated to 1 tiny piece of chicken thigh. Our potato pancakes were charred and so hard in places that I thought my fork would break before the potato did!

As for service...what an unfunny joke! I had a question to ask my server, couldnt find her, so I attempted to catch the attention of another and watched as she looked at me in my EYES and continued walking away. "Yes, that just happened" is the response my friend gave me at the look of incredulity on my face. We couldnt wait to get out of there and end what turned out to be a horrible dining experience.

When I saw the bill at $80 with nothing to drink but water and not one stomach sated, I felt on the verge of a blood vessel bursting and stroking out right there across the table. Total robbery. When you are sitting at a table with an $80 bill and thinking about what you're going to order at Wendy's drive through, you know you had a dining FAIL.

If you like throwing your money away, being ignored and having the tiniest portions known to man to boot, then Navarre is for you. Bring Lube. Everyone else, do yourself, your wallet and your blood pressure a favor and skip this black hole

• Pros: The dishes were clean... um...the water was refreshing...
• Cons: Absent service, Complicated Menu, Inflated prices