Let me start by saying the wait staff is fantastic. The breads are fantastic. The drinks are great pours but too expensive, the wine prices are reasonable. Here is where we go south. This restaurant subliminally represents the cockeyed British stereotype of the ugly American. You know, big hunk of beef, drinks, eat bread, noisy atmosphere, totally pretentious, contrived sophistication. What do I mean? Let's start with pretentious - I wanted some extra pepper for my salad. They brought me ground pepper and salt in little carafes with little spoons like it was a side dish. I like my pepper fresh ground and in a container that doesn't take up real estate on a too small table. I also wanted some ice in my (tap) water. Bring me a glass with some ice? Oh no, no, no. They brought the ice in a little silver bucket, with a spoon taking up even more precious table real estate. So I had to wrestle with slippery ice on a too small spoon trying to slam dunk in my glass, like a drunk basketball player. The cutlery is oddly weighted, so you have to be a cirque du soleil performer to balance it on your plate. It was entertaining though to see others flatware roll around on their plates like a pinball machine. My table of 4 alone saw two forks and a knife catapult to the floor. Others in the restaurant performed similar acrobatic feats. Pretentious, overdone and stupid, i.e. the British view of Americans. It really reeks of ignorance. The food was good but not great. I know we are told that Americans overcook pork, but the porkchop was just unappealing with the raw, red center. My Beef Wellington was also a big disappointment. It looked done perfectly, crusty on the outside, red on the inside. However, do you know how steak tastes one or two days after cooking and you put leftovers in fridge? That certain "off" taste? Well it is obvious that the Wellington was prepared one or two (or more) days ahead of time and just finished per order in the oven. It had a very off taste. And get this, they cut the whole thing in half before they serve it! Kinda like some British guy shouting, I CAN COOK TENDERLOIN CORRECTLY! WHO CARES ABOUT YOU OR YOUR MEAL! LOOK AT ME! Any juices contained within the Wellington were long gone by the time the plate made it to my table. The strip steak was good, mainly because they did nothing to it but cook it correctly (it just takes a hot salamander and timer to do that). The corn was good, the spinach was good but overall, the food was not worth half of what they were commanding in prices. It was a shame that none of our party of ugly Americans were interested in a signed copy of Gordon's picture on a tasting menu, although his presence constantly reminds us that he is an extremely good looking and sexy man - and of course, that makes a chef. Suffice it to say, when looking at my plate, I felt no thunder down under.
