We finally made it out to Semolina for our first, and unfortunately last, time. I was really looking forward to this restaurant after reading all of the raving reviews. It’s a shame, but the outstanding food was ruined by the horrible VERY RUSHED condescending service by our server from hell Karen. Talk about eat it and beat it. She couldn’t wait to get rid of us. We have never been treated with such disrespect. I guess I shouldn’t of mentioned that we came from 1 hour away up North. They must really hate the Bennies down south I purposely made an ungodly reservation of 4PM and requested a larger 4 top so we could relax and enjoy our dinner before it got crowded. When we got there at 4 PM I asked if we could possibly have a larger 4 top. Right away Karen says, we are fully booked but we might be able to squeeze you in, but you HAVE to leave at 5:30. I said no problem. So of course Karen seats us at the shittiest 4 top by the front door and hostess station, where all of the workers congregated all night long and whispered in front of us. Of course when we left there were only 3 tables taken and we could have sat anywhere. Karen then pressured us to order everything up front in this empty restaurant. I gave her a couple of appetizers to put in while we decided on entrees but she would ‘t even put the appetizers in until I gave her the entrees 5 minutes later. I tried to tell her we don’t want to be rushed and don’t want the entrees on top of the appetizers and she said don’t worry the meal will be paced accordingly. So after we had our appetizers I asked Karen to wait a few minutes before firing up the entrees, and she basically said it’s too late (or tough shit). So of course as Mrs. P gets up t go the bathroom they are coming out with the entrees as an F U to us. So what would have ben an excellent scallop entree was ice cold by the time she got back with the overhead fan blowing on it. So we got served 2 appetizers, a pasta dish, and 2 entrees in barely 45 minutes, or 15 minutes less than it took us to drive there. We still had another 45 minutes before our deadline of 5:30. Karen says don’t worry you can take your time. I told her this is already our last course, it’s too late now.
It was a real shame because this chef is extremely talented, but I think we will stay up North where we are treated with respect. What a difference between our dinner at newly opened restaurant Bloom, where everyone was so friendly, didn’t rush us, and the owner kept coming out to see how we were enjoying our dinner.
As far as what we ordered, we started off with an excellent sungold tomato tart, and a so so stuffed zucchini blossom that wasn’t fully fried. We also had the excellent chittara with Maryland blue crab, and basil pesto. For entrees I had the awesome pork chop (which I can see why everyone is raving about it). Mrs. P had what would have been an awesome scallop dish if they didn’t purposely bring it out as she was going to the bathroom. The full descriptions are on the attached menu.
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