Monday, February 15, 2010

Al's Char-House - La Grange, IL

This Valentine's Day we went out for dinner.  Let me just say we went the day  before Valentine's Day to avoid the crowds.  We wanted to see the movie Nine at the La Grange Theater, so we chose a restaurant close to the theater on La Grange.  La Grange, IL is a village and Chicago suburb in DuPage County.


We parked and walked in to Al's at about 6:10 p.m.  Our name was added to the list and we waited at the bar with margaritas for about 20 or 30 minutes until our name was called.  The margaritas were good.  I noticed that despite how packed the place is, if you don't respond to your name by running to the host desk, they immediately give your table away to someone else.  We got to the host desk in time.

Be careful in this place.  It's a lawyer's dream.  There are different flooring levels every 10 feet and you can trip, like I did, despite the warnings.  

They led us to a very small two top in the back.  (That's restaurant speak for 2 chairs and a tiny table.)  Other couples got booths, but didn't sit on the same side like we would have.  Oh well.  I did notice they have pillows on the booth backs.  I now understand why and will explain.

Our waitress did not get to our table for about 10-15 minutes after we were seated.  She apologized for the wait and I noticed that she had a larger table of six who had just ordered appetizers and drinks, and she had been waiting at the bar for their drinks.

We ordered all of our courses immediately, including a diet soda and seven up, a burger with bacon and cheddar, and a steak sandwich done medium well.  We asked to start with potato skins.  David ordered salad and I ordered chicken noodle soup.

The potato skins and sodas came in maybe 10 minutes or so.  So far so good.  The skins were tasty, with plenty of bacon and cheese on top.  I'm glad I got my fix in the app, and I'm glad I was mostly full after a couple of halves.  The soda tasted like it came out of a dirty line.  One of my restaurant pet peeves.  You want to save money using a soda line, then clean it.  It's gross to drink what tastes like dirty bar dish water.

We asked for our skins to be wrapped to go because we had several left over and we wanted to save room for dinner.  It took at least twenty minutes for our next course to come.  David insists it took longer than that and he may be right.  How long does it take to put salad on a plate and soup in a bowl?  We were starting to worry about making our movie, which is funny because we got to the restaurant at 6 and the movie started at 9 and was down the block.

I went to the ladies room while we waited.  It was kind of old and falling apart.  The stalls were all connected with one panel of doors.  Mine didn't actually lock.  Every time someone exited or entered the one next to me, my door flew open.  I do have to give them kudos for the toilet paper being raised up high so you don't have to rub it on the floor to get it out of the dispenser.  The toilet didn't flush unless you held the handle the entire time during the weak flush.  I had to flush for the person before me and then for myself.  Other than that, it wasn't very clean or nice.  You'd think with their volume and prices they could put a little into the bathroom.  One of my pet peeves is bad bathrooms, particularly in a nice place that does a lot of business. 

The salad was forgettable.  David loves salad and usually eats until his plate is clean, but he said, "I'm done with this salad.  It barely has any dressing on it."  He ordered bleu cheese and they were stingy with it.  He didn't comment on the actual salad, but the lack of dressing seemed to ruin it for him.

The chicken noodle soup was actually very good in terms of flavor.  Perfect flavor.  However, it had overcooked elbows in it and I didn't detect a single shred of chicken in it, nor were there any vegetables other than a few very large chunks of celery.  I didn't see a carrot or an onion.  I chalked it up to chicken broth with elbows and figured I'd have plenty to eat when my meal came.

I tried the signature bread.  It is a very dense raisin bread.  David tried it and didn't like it.  He said if he wanted carrot cake he'd order dessert.  I had a slice and it was good, but dense and oddly paired with soup and salad, as it tastes more like dessert.  I love bread and we let the waitress take most of it away uneaten.

Our food took forrrrrrrrrever!  I.  Mean.  Forever!  It was at least an hour after the skins came.  We were served our dinner at just before 8:30, more than 2 hours after walking in the door and about 2 hours after being seated.  At that point, we didn't even want the food anymore.  In fact, it was only out of our moral feeling of obligation to stay and eat what we ordered that we didn't go to the host stand and tell them to forget it and charge us for the appetizers only.  We wanted to walk out.

While we waited we couldn't help but entertain ourselves by making fun of the place and ourselves for sitting there like cattle.  I noticed a rib lying on the floor from hours before.  I even noticed duct tape on the thermostat, wires that weren't tucked away on some of the beams, and fake cacti.  We commented on the waitresses' hair styles.  One reminded us of the girl in the movie Liar Liar played by Cheri Oteri.  

I overheard the table next to us comment, "We got bent over," when they got their check.  Honestly, they were probably wrong because they got served much faster than we did and they had 8 lb steaks with 3 or 4 add ons each and alcoholic beverages as well as appetizers for six.  I don't know what they expected and I didn't hear them complain about a single food item.

David and I have plenty to talk about and we generally have fun on our dates, but I have to tell you that we were running out of small talk to make and we were getting delirious during the wait.  I kept yawning and I commented that I know why they have pillows on the booths.  They know their patrons need to nap while waiting for their food.  David said, "Yeah, they should have a nap room.  You order and they say go take a nap and we'll wake you when it's ready."  I couldn't get a feel for the reason for the wait, other than they were busy, but there were other tables turning over rapidly and other waiters who were bringing food out fast.  It seemed random, like our little booth was forgotten.  Then again, a few other tables were rotting too.

David commented several times that no restaurant is worth this kind of wait and he was aging as he sat there.  I joked that maybe they age your steak while you wait.

The food finally came.  

David's was delicious, thought it was underdone for his taste and not cooked to his specification of medium well.  It was quite pink, and I enjoyed it.  I ate 1/4 of his sandwich because my burger was awful.  There is no other way to describe it.  Maybe it's bad on me for ordering a burger in a steak house, but I figured if they can do meat they can do meat!  

David wondered why I snatched 1/4 of his sandwich and ate the whole thing, not touching the rest of mine after the first bite.  First of all, it had no bacon and no cheddar on it.  I had ordered it that way.  Second, it was overdone. I ordered mine medium and it was gray all the way through, which was good, because the texture of the meat was so fine and so unlike any other burger I've ever had that it reminded me of spam.  It was like someone used a gelled meat product to make a patty and they didn't season it or anything.  It was not worth another bite or any of the calories involved.

David thought it couldn't be that bad so he tried it and said, "No, that's not very good at all!  I'm sorry."  He asked if I wanted to get something else and I said no way after waiting 2 hours...I wasn't even going to ask for bacon or cheese at this point.  I was just not going to eat it.  

When the waitress came back she asked if we wanted our leftovers wrapped and we said to wrap the steak sandwich but not the burger.  (This should make another problem apparent.  I was a waitress for 10 years and you always go back after a few bites of food to make sure your customers are happy and food is prepared properly and they have everything they need.  She did not.  She had no idea my food was wrong until we were done.)  She asked why and David told her I didn't like it and it was not how I ordered it at all, no bacon, no cheddar and not cooked properly.  She said, "That's my fault."  However, it was still on the bill.  So we paid for a burger I took one bite of and forced myself to swallow.

David said he was happy to pay the bill just to get the hell out of there.  We got up and he said, "Ugh, I can't even stand from sitting so long."  I said, "Yeah, we're lucky we haven't died from a blood clot from sitting for so long."  We giggled.

As we walked out we saw an elderly couple waiting for a table, among many others, and David said, "I should tell that poor guy he's got limited time as it is, use it wisely and go somewhere else.  He doesn't have that kind of time!"

I don't think we'd go back.  We thought that if we do, we'll stick to a big steak and share it.  We certainly won't expect the service to be quick.  We'll bring a book or something.  Now that I've read other reviews as horrible as mine, I will not return.  I see the steaks are not good either and the service is typical.  Do not bring your kids unless you bring their entire toy box.  I can't imagine they'll behave for 2-3 hours.  We made our movie just in time for the lights to go down and the opening credits to roll.  9:01.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I absolutely love your blog. A couple of posts ago, when you showed off the flooring in your home, it was gorgeous. You have an awesome blog with lots of delicious tips. Love to read everything you have to say!

Dana Boyle said...

Hi Leslie, I just noticed you commented here...I have a new site, so I don't come back to this one often. :))) I'm glad you enjoy it. I love food blogging and I am intending to incorporated it at my new site www.danaboyle.com