The Carlyle Grand Cafe

I'm with you, Joe. We tried the Carlyle Grand Cafe and found that their entrees were arbitrarily different--e.g., mucking around with time-tested traditional recipes, putting on weird spices and sauces that don't work.

It might have been okay, however, if the result had been good. Not so, in our case. I ordered arctic char, figuring there was little they could do to mess up a perfectly good piece of fresh fish. However, they engulfed it with a nauseating sauce that looked and tasted like chunky mucus. Worse, however, the char wasn't completely cooked, and the waiter refused to take it back. I'm the kind of person who almost never sends food back, so having a polite request refused wasn't exactly endearing.

My wife had some kind of pasta seafood dish that looked delicious. However, they had used some kind of god-awful spicing/flavoring that absolutely ruined it. We quickly paid our check and left--never to return.

On the other hand, a few days earlier, we went to Bistro Bistro--across the street--and the food was delicious. So, at least we know it's not the neighborhood.

If we're ever stuck and no place is open except for the CGC, we'll have to get some of the n/g people who liked CGC to order for us. They sure seem to have had better luck than we did.

Joe C. wrote in message ...

>Pasta?  Sauce?   I don't know where you are from but down home in South
>Louisiana jamabalya would NEVER have pasta.  Jamabalya is a rice based
>dish.  As for sauce, the rice and other ingredients are cooked in a tomato
>based sauce until all of the liquid is absorbed.
>
> &*%#^*$ yankees don't know how to cook Cajun food.  - - Anything north of
>Baton Rouge is yankee country :-)

    I have been to the CGC several times over the past several years. It is one
of my favorites. The restaurant is pleasant, service is excellent and the food is good to very good.  Their preparation may not be traditional but I've liked almost everything that I have ordered - especially the warm flourless chocolate waffle with macadamia nut ice cream (I think that's right?!).
    My last visit to CGC was in July. I and two friends had an early dinner
during the week. One person ordered the shitake-crusted tuna cooked well. The tuna wasn't cooked enough for her but she didn't want to make a fuss (it looked well done to me). The waitress noticed that she wasn't eating much and asked if anything was wrong. Our friend admitted that she wasn't happy with the tuna. The waitress took it away and brought a new entree cooked properly. The waitress apologized more than once and the manager came by later and also apologized. As the  waitress was presenting the check she told us that dessert (the waffle of course) was free due to the difficulties with the tuna.

CGC may not be perfect but I like it.