Craftsman Restaurant

11/07/09

Too damned loud!

by pollysigh at Citysearch

Six of us have gone out to eat in the TC area once a month for about six years. Doing the math, one can see this amounts to a rather large and representative sample of venues. We have concluded that a very large percentage of restaurateurs and/or their insidious consultants have decided that the continuous auditory assault in sports venues must be duplicated in their eateries. Does it occur to anyone that diners may like to engage in conversation? Like the sports arenas and stadiums, is the idea to somehow, in some mysterious way, raise the "excitement" level of customers? I can see this in the case of bars and restaurant-music venues, but in restaurants where the principal activity is consuming what one hopes to be fine food, I can only ask, Why? This has become so annoying for us - and, no, there's nothing wrong with our hearing (yet) - that I'm not even commenting on the food. It doesn't matter. When all surfaces are of non-sound absorbent hard materials, this is what happens - and it's easy to rectify. I'm convinced that, if diners were asked to complete a brief survey, it would be found that a large percentage would like a reduction in noise levels. Such a survey would be easy to do as well. I even volunteer myself to construct and administer it, since I have some experience along these lines. One other positive besides the walleye, which, being a special, isn't on the menu every night: Craftsman is only in third place behind Talk of the Town and Chino Latino in the decibel level contest.

• Pros: Outstanding walleye special
• Cons: The auditory assault

02/13/09

best pickle martini ever, even better fries

by estaesta at Citysearch

This place is great for a romantic dinner, a client meal, dinner with your kids, your parents or your friends, or just a drink and burger at a bar. They use a lot of local ingredients and the chef does a lot of canning (you can see the fruits of his labor on the open shelves, which empty out as the winter progresses). Great service, a fantastic patio in the summer, and something to please everyone. Favorites are the gnocchi, the cheese plates, the burgers, the trout (or any fish) with divine parsnip puree. Not-favorites are the roasted veggie burger (not very tasty), and... I can't think of anything else. A great neighborhood joint that is also a slightly upscale city gem.

• Pros: unobtrusive and knowledgable service, local and delicious ingredients, inventive menu
• Cons: poor lighting, sometimes a little noisy (for older folks)

12/04/08

Bad service and an unwelcoming atmosphere = two upset customers

by DinnerGuestoo at Citysearch

Very cold & antiseptic atmosphere, and we were seated at the table in the dinning room with the best view of the outside door, so we were actually freezing all through the dinner. Our appetizer looked like dog food (braised pork), I couldn?t even try it, but my partner said it tasted ?O.K.?. the service was slow to inattentive, we probably talked to our waitress twice, we had a good 15-20 minute wait between each course, making us antsy to get out of the place. The bus man cleared our bread while we still had bread in the basket and refills on bread are $5, plus it was the only thing we had to eat. We didn?t order dessert or coffee because after 2 hours we just wanted to get home and warm up. But the piece de resistance - the table behind us exterminated an insect by swatting it with her shoe and not one server, bus man or any of the restaurant employees even paid attention, are they used to insects being exterminated at the table in that restaurant? Needless to say, I will not ever go back or recommend it to anyone.