Had dinner tonight at Crook's Corner and it was, much as it pains me to say this, a ghastly experience. The food itself was excellent. I had the mango salad and the shrimp & grits. Sarah had the duck onion soup and the cheese pork. It was all very good. But the restaurant was crowded and brain-crunchingly noisy. That's no one's fault, of course. But it wasn't making for a very nice night out. At least, for us. I know some people like crowded and noisy. (My understanding is that most of the Batali/Bastianich restaurants are designed with the tables close together and the music cranking because that's the kind of high energy vibe they want.)

But then the waitress totally screwed up my order, bringing me the gumbo instead of the shrimp & grits. So now Sarah's got her entree but the kitchen's got to fire a whole new one for me. We were eating out of sync -- she was basically done before mine even got to the table. And I realize there's not much that can be done except get the dish out to me as quickly as possible. But I just didn't feel there was much sense of urgency -- it all seemed rather blasé and ho-hum. And, it may be petty and completely wrong but I did sorta expect they'd knock a little something off the check for the screw-up with the main course.

Oh well. It's too bad we had such a negative experience get in the way of the food. But there's lots of places to get good food in the area now and we can vote with our feet for places with better service and just an overall dining experience that's more our style.