2 Comments

1. AW

   January 19, 2012 • 9:48 am

   I finally went to Mehtaphor last night, and though the food wasn’t bad, the experience was a disappointment. That our table wasn’t ready when we reserved was the usual disappointment, especially since the place wasn’t full, but okay, there actually aren’t that many tables. The worst part somehow was the incredibly pretentious spiel given by the servers every time we saw them. An elaborate explanation of the serving approach — one family-style plate at a time — went on forever, and when we explained that one of us is a vegan, one can’t eat most carbs, and one — me — is an omnivore, so this serial family-style serving wouldn’t really work for us, they seemed disappointed, but said they’d do what they could. Still — they brought one plate at a time, so we were never served together, and those who were served first, and waited politely, tended to wait a long time. When my foie gras came, the explanation for the medley of flavors and how they’re supposed to work together was particularly long, and pretentious — and unnecessary, as I was about to eat it, and would see for myself. (Not bad, not great) The lamb shank was a disappointment, and the sweet potato fries fine. The best was the rib eye steak, which was nicely charred, and sliced, and appreciated. The best red wine on the menu — according to the server — was mediocre, but the Manhattans we had to start were fine. When the bill came they brought it in an old crumpled envelope, on the back of which seemed to be a bunch of random notes. This was so weird I asked about it, and was told that they present the bill in an empty envelope so we can write on the back how much we liked the restaurant, and then I saw that indeed most of the comments were about how nice it was. “We think our guests like to see what others have said!” our server said brightly. This guest did not, and handed the envelope back, though when it came back after she’d run the card through, there it was again.

   This place needs new management. It may be that the chef has talent, but my two young friends, in their twenties, and me, an old guy, spent most of the evening laughing at the pretentious spiels, and wondering why the food didn’t live up to it.
2. Hudson River

   March 17, 2012 • 10:06 am

   Okay, you guys, here’s my review of our latest meal at Metaphor. If you guys like really good food, you won’t be disappointed. Everything was delicious. If you guys don’t mind a waiter calling you “you guys” (one of us wasn’t even a guy) three times in every sentence, you’ll be okay here.

   However, if you (guys) have limited patience for figuring out multiple menus (on plain pieces of paper with grease spots) and courses, and just want to have dinner, you may be frustrated (see AW’s review; it’s too complicated to write it all out again, but we liked the food more than AW seemed to). We would have tried one of the tasting menus, but that was even more confusing. And the rules for what course you could get and when you could get it was really bizarre. For me the point of going out to dinner with someone is to have dinner together, not separately, and if you don’t want to share, it can be a very long meal waiting around for the next plate to show up. So if you’re dining solo, this place would be ideal.

   I had the graffiti burger, which wasn’t a burger but more like 2 sloppy louie sliders. The fries were excellent. We had been once before and remember liking the food. If they did takeout so we could get everything at once, we would go back.

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