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Cafe Panache

Discussion in 'Area Restaurants, Dining and Food' started by jaxmanjoe, Nov 8, 2006.

  1. Show_hunters

    Show_hunters New Member

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    My husband and I have had dinner there and I thought it was a very cozy place. I like the menu and the price. As for the food, it good but my dish needed a little more humph or something (The fish was cooked prefectly, the sauce that was on the bottem was good but it needed something). My husbands main dish he said was good (it sure did look good!). Service was good, chief was very nice and personable. My husband and I will go back again.
     
  2. tiny

    tiny New Member

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    I also found it to be Ashland 321 redux....I found the decor to be exactly the same, the menu if not the same, very close. Even the presentation of the dinners was reminiscent. I was very disappointed that it seemed to open with the same food and service that didn't last at 321. I'm surprised that people will ooh and ahh over this place and turn around and complain about the service at Clyde's....good thing we are getting enough places to satisfy everyone's different opinions and tastes!
     
  3. tyger31

    tyger31 Member

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    Has anyone been to the brunch at Cafe Panache? Wondering how it is...
     
  4. vacliff

    vacliff "You shouldn't say that."

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    The big difference is the $$$$. Cafe Panache prices are easily half of 321 Ashland's. I don't recall there being any complaints with the decor or very many about the food at 321.
     
  5. erica

    erica New Member

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    My husband and I went to Cafe Panache last night.

    I ordered the mushroom/arugula risotta as I saw it had been written up in the Post's Food section. It was out of this world! I highly recommend it. And this is coming from someone who doesn't typically go for risotta on a menu.

    My husband had the filet mignon which was cooked exactly as he ordered it, and was so tender he didn't need a steak knife.
    The wine prices were reasonable-- we had a $21 bottle of pinot grigio.
    I also had the goat cheese salad-- personally I didn't like the goat cheese fried-- I would rather have had a few globs of good goat cheese around the salad. Despite this, I loved the salad-not too heavily dressed.

    We will definitely go here again. I would choose this over Clyde's or Bonefish. It was more relaxing and we didn't have to wait. They take reservations, too. I could actually hear our conversation and the wait staff was very attentive.
     
  6. Lisa

    Lisa New Member

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  7. sharse

    sharse TeamDonzi rocks!!

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    We went last night. I always liked 321, so of course I liked the atmosphere here. Service was good, food was not quite 321 quality, IMHO. Wine list was a little small. I was really hoping to LOVE this place so that we wouldn't have to go all the way to Lightfoot. We'll definitely go back, but it ain't Lightfoot. Or 321 for that matter. But I'm very happy to have it here so close to home.
     
  8. ExRIGuy

    ExRIGuy New Member

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    We went last night: All but 2 items on the menu were less than $20. My wife had the filet for $22 -- it was big, perfectly cooked, and the potato rosti was excellent; this would have been a $27-29 dish elsewhere. My gnocchi was very good, though it could have used a tad bit more flavor, but still, for $16, the taste and presentation were more than satisfactory.

    The meals were, in our opinion, better than the food at Clyde's at prices that are very reasonable for the quality of ingredients and presentation -- presentation and service were far better than Clyde's. For those of you that have Ashland 321 on the brain, go in with a fresh outlook and you will be pleasantly surprised.
     
  9. Broadlands MaMA

    Broadlands MaMA New Member

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    The Absulute best brunch in our area. Bar none
     
  10. smheese

    smheese New Member

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    We had a terrible experience there. It was our second time there after a first very pleasant time. We had reservations for 6:30 on Friday, and had to wait 20 minutes for our table to be ready. Lots of other reservations were waiting at the bar as well.

    Here are the highlights: Service was slower than you can imagine slow being... and we had a baysitter at home, so this cost us at least an extra hour's pay. My husband had to order a drink 3 times before anyone brought the beer, then he got told they have no glasses cold, so my husband explained to them how to make a glass cold, then finally got one a few minutes later, a tumbler, not a pilsner glass. The dish I ordered, the same one I loved the first time we went there, was bland, and tasteless and poorly put together. My husband's special was undercooked and fatty. Someone next to us tried to later order the special and was told they were out, (before 8pm on a friday). So a million hours later due to slow service, I finally get my dessert... this is the kicker. It was a chocolate brioche pudding thing I had high expectations for, we both dug in to try it and it tasted salty to me, and fishy to my husband, we quickly realized instead of putting vanilla sauce on it, they had put fishy CAESAR SALAD DRESSING ON MY CHOCOLATE DESSERT. DISGUSTING... this didn't speed up our service, it still took over 10 minutes to get a manager to come talk to us, who was a bumbling unapologetic idiot who didn't seem to understand how grossly negligent this was. A lot of people are allergic to anchovy.

    Needless to say, we won't be going back here. Instead of improving, they cannot handle their crowds, their inventory, or their food quality.
     
  11. redon1

    redon1 aka Aphioni

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    smheese- what did the manager say when you called him to the table? no way would this have gone unaddressed- im sure at least your "dessert" was free????
     
  12. sharse

    sharse TeamDonzi rocks!!

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    I had the GM send me a PM today to ask me more details about my experience, which by no means was terrible like smheese has described. I bet that when the right person hears about this, action will be taken. At least I would hope so. Please keep us posted, smheese.
     
  13. redon1

    redon1 aka Aphioni

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    they are only as good as the team that represents them, and if they don't know someone is really screwing up they cant do anything about it!
     
  14. smheese

    smheese New Member

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    while the dessert was free, yes, the manager didn't seem to care much or understand the magnitude of how serious that could have been, or even just how gross or negligent or odd a mistake it was. not to mention all the other issues we had there, slow service, no glasses ready. it all was just too much. plus the poor food quality compared to when we ate there back in november, was such a huge difference, they are growing their clientele too quickly, and they cannot handle it and keep up quality or provide any kind of acceptable service. it's unfortunate really, since i did have such a nice experience the first time i was there.
     
  15. brim

    brim Member

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    haha...wow.

    While the rest of your complaints are valid, you're really reaching on this one. A beers a beer...who cares what kind of glass it's in?
     
  16. Zeratul

    Zeratul Well-Known Member

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    brim.. whoa, hold your horses there. Not to hijack the thread... :hijack: but a beer is a beer? Does this reflect on your taste, beer knowledge (or lack) or just your quick impressions??? Beer, like fine wine, should be served in many different types of glasses. But it only makes sense to do this, if you have the right beer, and care to know the difference...

    Sorry, you were venturing into my turf and thought I should stick my nose up at ya for that one... :p and all in good fun. But seriously, there really is a method to that beer madness and there are dozens of different glasses for different types of beer. I will have to invite you over next time you are in town.
     
  17. brim

    brim Member

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    I thought about that, but I'm guessing they really don't serve any fine microbrews or any other brand deserving of a special glass at a strip mall restaurant.

    I know wine is 'supposed' to be served in different glasses, as well as mixed drinks, but all that comes off as a little snooty to me. :) Like, if I order a rum and coke it's supposed to come in a lowball glass, but if it comes out in a pilsner glass, I'm not going to complain. :)
     
  18. smheese

    smheese New Member

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    of course, our old friend brim with the a-hole comment. the un-beer non-pilsner glass we were given was a minor point. the major point was that they brought him a beer in a nice restaurant with NO glass, and said they had none cold so they wouldn't give him one. my husband, having class said he needed a glass, not to drink from a bottle in a nice restaurant.
     
  19. brim

    brim Member

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    That's not an a-hole comment, I just think you've had a bad experience and you're including a minor inconvenience to make the situation seem that much worse. Like I said, you have valid complaints but splitting hairs about the shape of a beer glass is a bit over the top.
     
  20. tigercpa

    tigercpa New Member

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    The beer in a glass issue reminds me of a joke told to me by a friend who was in a restaurant and ordered a beer, and the waitress asked if he wanted a glass for the beer, to which he replied, "no - only sissy boys from from Chapel Hill drink beer out of a glass."

    Obviously, this is funnier to those that didn't attend Chapel Hill
     

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