Trusting Your Gut

Do you ever get that eerie feeling when you step into a restaurant? That feeling that perhaps you shouldn't be eating there? My dad uses the number of people eating in the restaurant at any one time as a benchmark for how good the restaurant is. Sure, sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. I know plenty of good restaurants that are not full because they only just opened for dinner! Anyways, let me tell you about my experience at Madison & Fifth in Palo Alto.

It was close to 6pm on a Sunday night and time for dinner. My friend had suggested the restaurant as she had been there before and thought it was pretty good! I know she's got good taste buds so I took her word for it, but skeptical me hesitated as soon as we went in the door. The restaurant wasn't even a fifth full. Oh well, a server was coming to say hello. I thought, the staff seem friendly enough, so let's give it a shot.

Moseying over to the table, I pull out the chair only to find that there are spots of some type of liquid all over it. The waiter switches the chair out and I'm once again satisfied. However, as soon as I sit down and open up my napkin, I find that two flies have been hanging out inside, doing goodness-knows-what. I proceed to get my napkin changed as well. Oh dear, I think to myself. Perhaps I was right to hesitate.

The friendly waitress drops by with the menu, and I open it to find that the restaurant uses Comic Sans MS as its menu font. That's a no-no in my books. Not a professional font at all. We pick our courses for the night, starting with a sauteed calamari and a salad. My friend gets a red beet risotto with chicken, and I get a duck ravioli. The appetizers were actually quite good, but when we get our main courses, I'm flabbergasted. The presentation of the food was absolutely horrendous. My friend's red beet chicken risotto was spilling out grotesquely out of a squash, while my duck ravioli looked like... y'know, let's not even go there. I must say that her risotto actually tasted quite good, while my ravioli wasn't bad on the inside, but tough on the outside.

Not to mention that the whole night the servers were dropping utensils all over the place. In the span of two hours, they had dropped forks and knives about 5 times. I think that was the 3rd strike for my checklist, but the restaurant earned itself a fourth strike when it served us dessert that included gelato that was icy and somewhat crunchy!

I can't say it was the most enjoyable restaurant experience I've ever had, as the food was somewhat mediocre, but I truly enjoyed my company that night. And, you know what? That's what actually counted for me. Being with good friends always helps any situation.

So, trust your gut. You're usually right the first time. Thanks for checking in, and we'll see you again soon.