Critic's Review
I was thinking about salmon the other day, just when I got a mailing from the Ale House with their Lent fish specials on the weekend. For the month of March, they're having salmon oscar as the dinner special Friday thru Sunday; the ad looked enticing.
One thing is that you can't get the dinner special until after 4pm, so on a rainy Saturday I left home at 3:45 for the 22 mile drive up to Yamato. The place is just west of 95, so it's a quick trip.
It's located in one of those strip malls that doesn't have a direct entrance to a main road; you have to make a left on Broken Sound and go in the back way. BMW navigation has no idea how to get in, so ignore the women who tries to get you to go through some cockamamie maze; just go 3/4 around the circle and the entrance is the second one on the left. Zoom in on the map in Satellite mode and it will all become clear.
Pretty dead at 4:30; they have an outside bar at this location which is probably nice when it's not raining and windy.
There was no-one at the hostess stand when I got to it; I looked around to see where I might want to sit. The bar area with high tops seemed like a good place to watch sports, but there was nothing on and there was no-one there. A dude in a wheelchair sped up to me, and it took me a moment to realize that he was the host. I asked for a booth. He tried to seat me right by the bar, but I asked for one in the back for a bit more privacy. This may have been a mistake.
I was seated at 4:40. Menus are on the table, so I took a look even though I knew what I was having. I took a peek at the specials card to make sure that it was what I expected. It was the Salmon Oscar, but the price surprised me, $16.95. Their specials are usually cheaper than that. I looked at the regular menu, and they have Salmon with 1 side for $13.95. So the special is $3 more and has one extra side. I guess the "Oscar" is worth something, but not a crazy good deal.
It was now 4:52 and I hadn't yet been greeted by a server. There was a server setting the table on the other side of the rail; I got her attention and asked her to find out who my server was, as I'd been waiting a while. She assured me she would. She apparently didn't.
A tall girl was serving the table next to me, but didn't seem to care that I was sitting at an empty table. Other servers gathered at a corner booth, seeming to wait until the bell rang to come on duty. Apparently no server wants to take a new table after 4:30 as they'd be cashed out and it would just be work for them. A couple that was seated behind me were greeted right away. Now I was getting mad. No manager passed by between 4:40 and 5pm.
At 5pm the place wakes up, as apparently a new shift starts. The tall girl finally noticed that I was STILL sitting at an empty table 20 minutes in, so she said she'd take my order. I ordered an iced tea and the salmon special, and I asked for the side salad instead of rice, which has a $.99 up charge (make it $1 people, we're not stupid). She told me that no substitutions were allowed on specials, so I'd have to pay for a side salad, which was just perfect. "No Thanks, I'll do without the salad".
At 5:11 a dude brought out my iced tea with 1 wedge of lemon. Apparently the chick told him that I'd asked for the salad; he made a face and a hand motion and said 'No problem, I gave it to you for the up charge". Ok, Cool. The first decent thing that happened. "Blue Cheese Dressing, Please. And I asked for extra lemon", I said. He brought out the salad right away. 5:11pm and I finally had something to eat. I reminded him about the lemon.
A pretty good sized salad; definitely worth the extra $1. over the rice. Plus I didn't have to wait any more. The lemon came, and I had a beverage.
Music at the Ale Houses is solid, with Thin Lizzy, Hootie and Cake mixed in with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I was about 1/2 done with the salad when the salmon came out.
My first impression was that it didn't look much like the advertisement. The ad showed a nicely grilled piece of salmon with spices seared in; this was a boring looking blob. The broccoli was also plain and dull; I asked for some butter. The broccoli was actually cold. so there would be no melting of the butter. The salmon was overcooked, dry. Not properly basted with liquid. You can't just cook salmon dry.
The hollandaise was completely devoid of flavor; luckily I had some lemon. Salt, Pepper, lemon and it had some flavor. Not terrible, but not worth a drive up to Boca either.
I'd eaten all of the salad, so about halfway through the salmon my internal calorie meter kicked in and I decided not to finish. My server was no-where to be found, of course, because I wanted my check. He passed by and I said "check please" loud enough so he could hear me, and he brought the check soon after.
The tip was a conundrum for me; my ultimate server was fine and he did get me the side salad, but I couldn't completely overlook that it took 20 minutes for anyone to bother coming to my table. Tips are pooled, and there have to be consequences. I left $3 on a $20. tab; I normally would have left $4 or $5 depending on the service.
As I was leaving, at 5:45, the place had filled up considerably.
Conclusion
Obviously, service is a big issue in this place. I blame the managers, because it's their job to make sure that the "til 5pm" shift doesn't stop working at 4:30. Managers were constantly walking by after 5pm, but nothing before, which tells me that the manager took off early also.
It was a mistake to expect anything really good at the Ale House; it's consistently mediocre. This location has bigger TVs and a higher end crowd than at some of the others, which can be hangouts for riff-raff.
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