Thursday, August 6, 2009

Pre theater Teatro dinner

I've been the worst blogger ever. I'm sorry I've been so neglectful, but I've been unbelievably busy between work, buying a house, etc. Excuses, I know. But I digress.

I've been to Teatro before and always had a relatively good time. It's not particularly expensive, though it ain't cheap, but it's a good place before a show. While the tour of RENT was in Boston (one of my favorite shows), we decided to go to Teatro before going to see Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp.

Sadly, the meal was not all I hoped it would be. Our appetizers were nothing special -- I found the calamari to be overly chewy, though well-seasoned. As for the entrees, my scallops were by far the best dish, though the spinach ravioli was also good. My friend's chicken milanese was dry and came with no sauce, and was pretty disappointing.

The service was slow and the server seemed harried. It took a long time to get our orders in, and even longer to get our drinks. However, as it was right before I show, I understand things get busy and it's hard to manage.

The kicker was when I noticed a lemonade cocktail on the drink list. It was described as a lavender lemonade mixed with stoli and lemon lime soda. I asked for just the lemonade, and was informed by the server that they don't serve virgin cocktails. Excuse me? You don't serve virgin cocktails, at all? So if I ordered a virgin Bloody Mary, I'd be refused? I find the whole policy pretty appalling, personally, as someone who doesn't really drink. I had a soda instead, but from my experience in a restaurant, if we have the goods, we can sell it. I don't understand why I wasn't allowed to have a virgin lemonade, unless it was premixed and I didn't know about it, but why would I be refused ANY virgin cocktail?

Dessert wasn't much better. The mint chocolate ice cream was far too overly minty to eat more than a bite of, though my sorbet was solid.

The whole situation with the virgin cocktails left a really bad taste in my mouth, so I didn't have a great night anyway. I did enjoy my scallops on a bed of potatoes, bacon, corn, and some other summer veggies, though I thought it was a bit heavy on the salt. I will not be rushing back to Teatro, though I will admit that my previous experiences had all been better with friendlier service. If anyone who works at Teatro or understands their policy about the virgin cocktails, please let me know, as I'd love to better understand it. If I weren't rushing to a show after, I probably would have hung around to speak to the manager about it.

2 comments:

  1. I think you should call and talk to a manager about it. That seems very odd. Hope RENT was awesome!
    -Molly

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  2. I've been to Teatro once or twice when there were pre-theatre offers on and enjoyed myself on both ocassions. That said all it takes is one small mishap to leave a bad taste in your mouth and ruin your evening. It's sad becuase you obviously really like eating there. I hope something like that never happens to me, that said there are plenty of other places to go to - it's a 'buyers' market.

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