Milestones Pinecrest service could become a millstone.

I’m back… Did you miss me? This is the longest furlough that I have taken since starting this blog over 18 months ago now. It’s not that I stopped eating, I just have been otherwise occupied. As we make up for lost time, you will discover that a large part of time, we have been travelling from New York to the UK on to France and the Netherlands and finally back to Canada. Needless to say, we sampled the culinary delights of each of these destinations. It will take some time to get through the backlog of posts so please bear with us.

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Where we went: Living in the East End of Ottawa as we do, it is not too often that we get to sample the offerings of the many eating establishments West of  Bronson. On this particular occasion, we were returning from a trip to New York. We did not relish the thought of having to cook a meal after having driven for almost 7 hours and Milestones in the Pinecrest Mall had been on my wishlist for a long time, so we decided to kill two birds with one stone and stopped in. Although reservations are normally recommended, on this Thursday evening, they were clearly not necessary.  Although not exactly empty, there was plenty of room for a party of two.

What we ordered: It turn out that they had just switched to a new menu. Since the menu changes fairly frequently at this restaurant, you would be well-advised to peruse the menu online before venturing there. Although I do not usually begin my meal with a starter, since I have a reasonably small appetite, the rosted beet and watermelon salad caught my eye. To follow, I ordered sirloin steak with fries. Dorothy opted for the prime rib with garlic mashed potatoes.

What we got:

Things got off to a great start with the beet salad. It was simply exquisite. From there, things, for me at least, started to go downhill. When our main courses finally arrived, my steak, which I had ordered medium rare, was as grey as Stephen Harper’s hair and just as lifeless. When we could finally get someone’s attention, I sent it back. By the time it returned, Dorothy had virtually finished her own meal (which she enjoyed). When it finally did arrive, it would have been enjoyable had it been on time.

Worthy of note: First, I must note that although our server was friendly and personable, he was not very attentive. Towards the end of our meal, he apologized for his behaviour by blaming it on a large group who took much of his time. This was not a smart move. What did we care about his problems. He would have been better off handing us off to another server in this case. His tip was according to what we received. Dorothy was annoyed enough that she admonished our server for not offering some type of compensation for the tardy service and the overcooked steak. He subsequently return with a coupon for free appetizers on our next visit.

Summary

• Positives: When the food was good, it was VERY good. I would go back for just the roasted beet and watermelon salad.
• Negatives: Service was severely lacking. Not sure the price is justified, this is still a chain although an upscale one!
• Recommendation: If you read other reviews as I did, you will find that inconsistency seems to be a problem, but the good definitely outweighs the bad!

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