Lemon... eh.

Yesterday, UrbanDaddy AND Daily Candy both scooped the same story. ::insert sad trombone sound here::

They were stories touting the opening...(re-opening?) of a restaurant on the Beach at 71st Street called "Lemon Twist."

They dubbed it "Euro-Chic" and...well, they probably didn't even dub it that, but they made it sound like an interesting place to go visit. So, visit (and eat) we did.

Not all my restaurant reviews are bad, I promise! Of course, I like to complain, so if I really like something I tend to blather about it to my friends, and write nothing. But, like if I had written a review about Las Vacas Gordas across 71st Street from Lemon Twist, I would have raved, RAVED about it. RAVED.

Because, Las Vacas Gordas is a. mazing. And their chimmichurri is a. mazing.

But I'm not writing about Las Vacas Gordas, I'm writing about Lemon Twist, the French Restaurant, where it looks like they wrote the name of the restaurant on the menus... with Sharpies.

The French restaurant where the waitress (owner?) had clearly gotten into some sort of an altercation with the large table of drunk people next to us, and who allowed that altercation to ruin her night, and make her demeanor forced-cheerful. She rolled her eyes at us after the drunk table left...

The French restaurant whose decor shrunk on me (is that the opposite of grew on me?) as the night went on.

The French restaurant where they had approximately two bottles of red wine at under fifty bucks, and were out of one of them...

The French restaurant where the highlight of the meal (I ordered a fillet mignon) was the potatoes gratin that we ordered as a side dish.

Gael had chicken with garlic and was as happy as a clam. I had the filet, which came with sauteed fingerling potatoes and haricots verts. My steak was nothing to write home about - in fact my entire dinner was on-par with what I'd get at a mid-level wedding reception. On reflection, I've DEFINITELY had better food at weddings...

For dessert, we shared a molten chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. Again, it was like wedding food. Fine, but nothing to write home about.

They served us a little shotglass of their signature drink - a lemon twist at the end of the night... that was nice.

And, I mean, I tipped 20%... so...

Yeah.

The food was fine. I don't need to go back. But I hope other people do.