Is this place a boredom project for someone with money who has always wanted a restaurant but has no experience?
I cannot imagine any trained chef (or anyone with restaurant experience, training or not) or even a home cook with one iota of knowledge or passion who would let any of those dishes pictured come out of a kitchen.
Okay, so the GM who reached out to me is also the head chef. Below is our conversation:
CHEF: I would love to have you come in and dine with us on us so you could reach out online and give your honest opinion of the place. Unfortunately Zhangs left a bad taste in everyones mouth. We hope to change that. Thank you.
ME: That sounds good. Couple of questions: who is the head chef and what experience has he? What are your specialties? How do you plan to succeed and standout in an area packed with restaurants? And I must be 100% honest when I say this,.I’ve seen the food pics on Instagram and they do not look appetizing. Perhaps there can be more attention in plating? Greg
CHEF: I’m the head chef I have been trained in classic Italian and have worked with steak and seafood for about 10 years. Our crab cakes have gotten great reviews also the lobster bisque is a great seller. As far as entrees our shrimp scampi, linguine with clam sauce, skirt steak with mango salsa, chicken francaise. Our menu is unlike anything in this exact area. You have fridays applebees but nothing like us. Also everything is made fresh daily nothing frozen. I understand about the plating I’ve made some changes and will send some pictures to you.
Most pics he sent were from Insta.
And I was dead wrong. One last message:
CHEF: Same owner from Zhangs but I’m running it fully hes out of here running his other restaurant.
Hey who said the above??? Oh yeah it was me!!! So new operators leasing the location and liquor license, I see. It all makes sense now and be prepared for: Zheng’s 2 The Revenge of Kahn coming in six mos. to this location!!
You can tell who he thinks his competition is. Why doesn’t he compare himself to someplace that is actually good?
My thoughts exactly… (Also: OOOOOF.)
geez…I wish nobody ill but this place won’t last unless they compete in the quantity over quality space and even that’s dicey. Why would anyone go there when within 10 min you have Nana’s kitchen and Patricias literally on 35 let alone places off of the same road…I just don’t get it. They must plan on a bang up bar business.
Greg- did they say how they found you? Just from your site?
From Facebook. We were posting in the same groups.
Moderators Hat On
While we can all continue to point out the “poor” marketing being done by this business, it is still a small business and I don’t want us to come across looking like a gang of bullies just piling on with nothing but negative comments. (yes I"m also looking in the mirror as I type this)
So I think we have established “plating and marketing” are not this owners strong point, but until someone actually tries the food and experiences the service let’s cut the place some slack and wait until we have more fact, instead of having fun in criticizing a place un-sampled yet.
For the best of our community and the Hungry Onion brand, I think it’s important we not develop a reputation as foodie -“haters”.
With that said I look forward to someone taking one for the team and posting about an actual experience here and let the conversation continue from that stand point. Thank you all for reading this and hopeful understanding.
Regards,
Notjr/Bob
I think you need to issue a HOdown.
As I told Bob in a private message today, I am guilty too and in 100% agreement.
Per the request of our esteemed moderator I will make no comment but just drop this link
Nice one Jeff.
The best steakhouse in Middletown! Did you hear that Bob? This place is calling your name.
At least know we know who took the food pictures
Yeah yeah yeah…I’m going to be the one to take one for the team, I see it now! Maybe i’ll Bring a special guest.
Was this guest an 80s hair metal rocker and actor on Gilmore girls? Asking for a friend
Actually, it says “in town”, and the town is Holmdel, which doesn’t have a lot of steakhouses.
My mistake. I dont think holmdel has any but the chain one next to chili’s. Long horn I think is the name.
Texas Roadhouse.
I’ll tell ya what, out of all the “family friendly” steakhouses Texas Roadhouse is probably my favorite. Not a bad piece of meat.
That’s what she said
