Monday, February 18, 2008
Restaurants Foodie fails to fawn
Posted by Cliff Bostock @cliffbostock on Mon, Feb 18, 2008 at 10:30 PM
I received the following from a friend who is a major foodie:
I noticed in your Creative Loafing food column that you reported (secondhand) good things about Floataway these days. We are stalwart fans of the place. So we went there for Valentine’s Day. I know: probably not the best night for a restaurant. Nonetheless, we had by far the worst meal that we’ve ever had there — and we’ve eaten at Floataway a lot over the years. Everything about the experience was bad: startlingly inept service (an almost entirely new staff); a diminished, unremarkable wine list; and (worst) muddy, gummy, over-salted, half-hearted cooking. Even the basic rough material of the food — the vegetables, the fish — seemed second rate. It didn’t even seem like we were at Floataway.
Astonishingly, Annie herself was there, though not cooking. It seemed like less than just an off night and more like a paradigm shift in what the place is all about. (You know that they opened that new bar/lounge space.) I don’t know if you’ve ever had the experience of a meal being so disappointing that it’s actually embarrassing … that you don’t want to make eye contact with your server … that you just want to slink out of the restaurant. The meal was so bad that, upon my very specific (though painstakingly polite) complaints, they didn’t charge us for the meal. We just paid for the wine and left a tip. We had to console ourselves with the boxes of chocolates we each bought each other.
Comments (3)
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have you heard anything else about this? i think my wonderful lady friend is planning on taking me to floataway for my birthday - we've been meaning to go there forever. i don't want her to drop all that cash on a bad meal, especially one so awkwardly bad "that you don’t want to make eye contact with your server", as your friend said.
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Hmmm. How interesting. I was there just before Valentine's Day for a dinner. I've always said that Floataway was hands down my favorite restaurant in Atlanta and I've dined there many, many, many times. While our food tasted good, we too had *the worst* service. I even wrote an e-mail and got a personal apology from Anne and Cliff. Main issue was inept service and someone who knew absolutely nothing about the menu or the winelist. Attention to detail was nil. The wait staff there is usually a bunch of foodies who are so excited about what the kitchen is preparing - it's one of the reasons it's a treat to go there. Maybe we had the same server??? I'm hoping it's just one bad apple because I'd hate to see my fav spot go down the tubes. If you want a good alternative to Floataway for about the same price, go sit at the bar at Baccanalia. You can order ala carte and they'll even split things for you at no charge. We can split one fixed price dinner and usually be full with maybe an extra salad or the cheese plate. The bartender is great and you get to watch everything going on in the kitchen through the huge window behind the bar.
I just went to Floataway last night and was very disappointed. It was my first visit since the remodel and I can't say I'm impressed. To start the night off, the hostess told us we were thirty minutes late. When I explained that I checked OpenTable before we left and it said 8pm, she said, "Well, we've got you down at 7:30pm but we've got a table." Not a big complaint but not a great way to start dinner, either. Our waiter was totally clueless about the menu and described coulette as, "basically raw ground beef". Yum, way to sell it! The food felt uninspired and blah. It almost seemed wrong to pay so much for such a lame meal. I'm a big fan of Bacchanalia and Quinones. The service is excellent and you pretty much can never order wrong. This is why Floataway is such a head scratcher for me. I want to like it but they make it so hard!
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