Buy yourself a nice dinner was created by a small group of young women in Asheville, NC. Some of us are new to the area, some of us have just moved back, and some of us have lived here for years. It was decided that there are so many amazing restaurants in Asheville that we all wanted to try that we should meet once a month and "Buy Ourselves a Nice Dinner" ... cause lets be real we all deserve a nice dinner from time to time! Each month we meet at the chosen restaurant, eat food, have a drink, and enjoy each others fabulous company. This month we meet up and found ourselves compairing and critiquing our experience. After much laughing and a little wine we decided to start this blog. Why not share our experience with other people and give them a little insight to what we are learning as we dine around town.
During each dinner we will keep a notebook on the table and take notes on what we like and don't like about our experience. We have come up with a list of categories we will rate on a scale of 1 to 5 to share with you (5 being the best of the best). You will get a sneak peek into our girls night out and how our crazy brains work!
Hope you enjoy!
Hey Friends!
ReplyDeleteMy name is Erica and I am one of the faces of the BYAND!
Here is my review of Strada. I am a very forgiving person, but am aware of every part of the experience. Feed me good food and provide friendly, tentative service and I am one happy lady! I am also 50% Italian and grew up around authentic Italian food, which gives me some credibility when critiquing Strada. :)
This is what I emailed to the owner about our experience:
The top dishes that I loved were:
The homemade bread, with oil
the cheese pizza
and the desserts were Fabulous!
Here is a list of things that did not go so well that night.
1. We made a reservation for our large table, and it was not pre-set up when we got there. They had to move the tables in front of us and the legs of the tables were very unstable and they tried to fix it with a folded menu. It somewhat worked.
2. Some of my friends ordered drinks that did not get served to them until 20 minutes later when my friends had to remind the waitress.
3. The waitress never told us about the special. She brought us 1 basket of bread and 1 dipping oil plate. From my experience, 2 baskets, 2 oils would have been expected at a large table like ours. She also did not provide us with bread plates. This made it very awkward as we were passing everything back and forth with oil dripping on the table.
4. We ordered a regular pizza as an appetizer which was great! Excellent crust and sauce! The waitress brought out plates, but set the stack on the very end of the table. Passing them out to each of us would've been nice.
5. We all got another course, salads; I got the figs which were divine! nice job on those!
6. Our entrees took way to long to come out; the timing was off on all of the courses.
7. I got the chicken piccata. At first I was impressed at the dish, but half way through eating my chicken, I noticed that the top 1/4 inch of the chicken was raw! I showed Diane, the hostess, and she brought it back to the kitchen. The waitress addressed it and asked if I wanted another one, but I declined and she took it off my bill. I appreciated that.
8. My friends all got pasta dishes that said they came with garlic bread and a salad. When they came out with no garlic bread, we asked about it. The waitress said that it was a misprint in the menu and they didn't actually come with garlic bread, but that she would get us some anyway. Okay. Well she brought out totally burnt pieces of bread that were harder than croutons.
9. After we were finished, we got three desserts which were all wonderful.
10. The waitress had a hard time with our bills and payments. She was unattentive to our table and it didn't appear to be that busy, which made me wonder.
Keep Chewin',
Erica