Mike is really on a search to find a place that can be our Friday night go to place that isn't 45 minutes to get to.
We walked in at 6:00ish and were told there was a 20 minute wait. We didn't have a reservation, so this was totally fine. We said we'd go have a drink in the bar. The bar was crowded with a lot of locals eating entire meals at the actual bar. There were tables around the bar (way too close together) that were empty, but we were told those were only if you were going to eat in the bar. One nice waitress did tell us that the table way over by the entrance to the kitchen was not for food customers and we could sit there. We did and proceeded to each order a cocktail. They came quickly and were pretty good and then immediately we were called because our table was ready (it had been something like 5 minutes).
That leads me to speak about the front desk. The girls at the front desk (and there were 4 of them) were the "hostesses." The problem is...they really only needed one or two. They were high school/college girls and they were in a little "pack." All they did was stand at the hostess stand (most of the time with some of their backs to the door/customers coming in and chat. While we were eating dinner, Mike was facing the hostess stand and he said he watched them "do each other's hair" and look stuff up on their phones! This doesn't help a restaurant that is trying to be a "nice" restaurant.
When we arrived at our seat we noticed quite a few empty tables/booths...so I don't know what the wait was for anyway (even if it was only 5 minutes). The waitress saw that we had drinks and she said she would let us read the menu while she got us water. We ordered and our salads came. I saw that everyone around us had bread with a oil/vinegar dipping sauce. I had to ask for ours. It was unintentional, but still a slight bummer.
Mike ordered the cordon bleu chicken special. It was in a mushroom garlic sauce with chives. He asked for no mushrooms and no chives. The waitress said the sauce was already prepared (not good) and that the mushrooms were already in it. She said she could probably stop the chives. So, Mike picked out the mushrooms (and I ate them). The sauce on his chicken was pretty yummy, but they don't tell you the price of the "specials." Mike's chicken breast with a side of pasta was something like $40. He said it was good, but it wasn't $40 good.
I got linguine in marinara sauce. It was something like $13 (which is actually high for something that cheap). The marinara wasn't very flavorful and the pasta to sauce ratio was WAY off. I had enough pasta for 3 people and enough sauce for 1. If we go again, I'll need to get something in a white sauce, as I didn't like the red sauce.
We ordered a bottle of Hess "Shirt tail" Cabernet. It was $48. I noticed (because we are going there tonight) that Annie Gunn's (which is a way nicer restaurant) sells the exact same wine for $40. It was pretty good but had a little "alcoholly" taste at the beginning that I found a little off putting.
This is still the closest "nice" place to home, but we are going to see if we can find something we like that is more in the medium price range.
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