Chintzy and Ruined Our Valentine's Day!

My husband and I received gift certificates at Christmas for Le Chambertin, after having raved about holding our wedding reception there twenty-four years ago! So we decided what better occasion than Valentine's Day to make use them, right? WRONG! It was THE worst Valentine's Day experience we've ever had!

The first tip off should have been that there were tables left for the 6:00 p.m. sitting. Friends joked that the earlier dinner time matched our getting older now (although I wouldn't call 54 a geriatric just yet) As we walked in, one thing jumped out at us. Everyone was sitting jammed packed, shoulder to shoulder. The floor space had been totally maximized and there could not have been more than 2.5 feet between parties (some tables for 2 had even less) -- a lot of them were groups of 6 or more. We were shown to a table at the back of the restaurant, facing 2 long tables of 12 who were there for a lively birthday party. We felt like we were at a cross between a wedding reception and a cabane-a-sucre!

There was a set menu, which wasn't a table d'hote, and everything was individually and highly priced (one of them a tomato and gin soup at $8.95 (!) while a caesar salad was $6.95). I had the Roast beef au jus at $34.00, with a smallish baked potato, ONE asparagus spear, and a small sad pile of green and red julienne cut peppers and thinly sliced zucchini and carrot "toothpicks". Bread was made available ONCE by a waiter passing out ONE sliced bun-sized chunk of challah bread from a giant salad bowl. CHALLAH bread in a French restaurant?? I had to ask if there was sour creme and the waiter came back to spoon some on my plate - ick. Fortunately,they didn't do anything terrible to my roast beef (hmmm... was that condensed beef consommé as the "jus"?) My husband's salmon was blahh and uninspiring at $29. with dry rice and the same pile of peppers and zucchini. Our waiter came to take our order, brought our wine ($29.95 for a bottle of the house wine as individual glasses or half litres were not available), warned us that if we did not order an appetizer it could be a long wait for our meal because it was so busy in the kitchen, but we still said no. The waiter came back with our food, grudgingly returned at our request to pour more water for us once, and finally, brought our meal. He never came back to check on us (more bread, perhaps? surely you jest, although the breadman did spend a lot of time checking on the 2 tables of 24 next to us).

All we could think of is how Le Chambertin had ruined what was supposed to be a romantic dinner. There was no special attentive service that one expects in a fine dining restaurant with those kind of prices. There was no atmosphere except for some red helium filled balloons here and there. The restaurant chose to maximize their earning potential, at the price of our own personal experience. Maybe the large groups had a good time, but I can bet the rest of the couples felt this experience left A LOT to be desired, for the kind of experience THEY had intended for their Valentine's Day dinner. Friends of ours had gone to Gibby's - a place they keep returning to every year, for every one of their special occasions. I don't think the prices there were much different than what we paid, but judging from how they rave about the service and the food all the time, I told my husband that GIBBY's is where we are going the next time!