Potager.....

I have been dragging my feet on this one. I feel like I have been let down by an old friend and keep wishing it weren't true but a week has gone by and I must dish.

We had visitors in town last week, Walton and Jeffrey, the newlyweds! and decided to take them to Potager for dinner given our past wonderful experiences there. We walked in and waited what seemed like 10 minutes for someone to acknowledge us and finally take us to a table. Not a good start. We should have made a run for it then. Fortunately we were seated on the patio and our orginial angst began to slip away. Drinks arrived and we began to look at the menu. I know they are in season but there was an abundance of fava beans and spring peas and not much else. The menu items all suffered from being too verbose-it was so easy to get lost in the verbage of each dish you forgot where you started. After much deliberation and a little help from our server, we ordered. And the wait began....

Twenty minutes later, 2 bread servings later...Appetizers

Asparagus Soup - when it arrived it was a beautiful bright green soup with a tiny dollop of cilantro cream in the middle. When I tasted it was watery, underseasoned and the best part about it was the tiny, insufficient cream. For this I paid $8. Ouch.
Farmers Vegetable Salad was about the most boring salad I've seen, peas, radishes, jicama, baby carrots and that was it - very light dressing that also lacked flavor or seasoning.
English Pea and Mint Pesto Risotto - delicious, delectable and underseasoned - oh no again - did they run out of S&P in the kitchen that night?

We waited a good 40 minutes after our apps were cleared for our entrees. Our server all but disappeared once the apps had been served and we were then "taken care of" by random others in the dining room. We were the table that time forgot.

Entrees
Buttermilk Fried Frogs Legs - "mushy" - unforgivable
Smoked Cod - tiny portions of two bits of cod and you guessed it, peas and fava beans
Duck Confit Salad - the duck was perfectly cooked and delicious BUT - the duck pate croutons were sloppily thrown on the side of the plate, the salad with underdressed and underseasoned and again, thrown on the plate. (For $26+ I want some composition and care)
Steak - Huge hunk of meat (not a recognizable cut of steak) piled ontop a huge crostini (charred leftover house bread), a tiny portion of green tomato gratin which was underwhelming when it could have been so good.

Had we been alone without guests, I would have made a stink. But my good manners got the better of me that night.

We skipped the dessert offerings and headed for Liks which restored our outlook.

All I could think of as we left was that I wished we had gone to Tables. I am not ready to write off Potager, I think the chef was out of the kitchen that night, perhaps they were at the end of the menu cycle for Spring and everyone was bored of the food. I certainly was. There is no excusing the SLOW and inattentive service and that can be a deal breaker for me. Next time, I'll call and make sure the Chef is in.