What a Tremendous Fall

Having had nice dining experiences here before, I’m sorry I need to cross Flamme off my list forever due to one of most unpleasant dining experiences I’ve had in a long time (and that’s saying a lot for a town famous for unpleasant dining).

How many things can a restaurant do to ruin a meal, let me count the ways…

When the waiter took the order, he didn’t seem to know about the side dish option. He also completely forgot to ask about drinks.

Nearing the end of appetizers, another waitress finally came over to ask about drinks, NOT the waitress, mind you, who had been twiddling her thumbs for the past 10 minutes in clear view of a table WITH food on it but with NO glasses at all, not even a single glass of water.

It was around this point I saw them bring out two mains and place them at the wrong table. At least one person at that table put their fork into something on the plate before the staff realized the mistake and took the two mains to their rightful owners, who remained blissfully unaware.

The above carelessness or lack of training is something I know to expect in China and not enough for me to ‘cross a restaurant off my list’ but what happened next is…

I ordered my steak at a “7” which has come out nicely medium rare at Flamme in the past, but this time it was bloody raw when I cut into it. I asked them to put it back on as I really wanted their normal “7”.
Now I’ve only glanced at the open kitchen in the past, but this time I watched closely since I had a feeling they might char my steak. Huge caveat: never send meat back! (..I should know better but I’d rather let my stomach deal with well-done than raw).

The guy in the kitchen -- who I saw picking his ear with his pinky and then examining the wax or whatever he found there – picked up my steak with his earwaxy bare hand and put it on the grill.
I realize this and much worse goes on in most restaurant kitchens but it’s the kind of thing customers are better off not knowing about. At least the guy used tongs to place the steak back on the plate, at which point it looked as if one guy dipped his finger into someone on my plate and then licked his finger. (note: can’t be sure about this part since I did have not a full view, but I definitely saw finger-linkin’).

I eventually choked down the steak, which was fatty & chewy and frankly just smelled quite off (far from the quality I had there on previous visits), the whole time thinking how they could have redeemed the experience had the food been good. On the way out took another look in the kitchen to see one of the guys in there picking at the skin on the back of his hand…

I nicknamed that guy ‘picky.” But maybe I’m the one who’s picky since, due to this one tremendously offsetting experience, I won’t be back to Flamme.