020208, 033/366: Please tell me NoRTH (yeah, that's how they spell it) is kidding with this mess of an app., originally uploaded by Boots in the Oven.
This was my picture of the day for Sunday over at Flickr (yup, I'm still plugging away at Project 366) but honestly, the thing is such a crappy joke that I have to show it off to those of you that don't check the Flickr photostream.
Here's what I had to say over on Flickr:
Normally, I would have let this disgusting joke of an appetizer go unblogged, uncommented, and unremembered. But. It really pissed me off.
This restaurant is supposed to be "modern italian cuisine." This is their "seasonal house antipasti" for $9. Let's not pick too much on how any Italian restaurant in Italy would spit on this mess of a plating (for actual Italian antipasti plates, look here) - I understand NoRTH may be trying to get away from traditional ideas of italian food. Which wouldn't be bad in and of itself, but...
It's just... in February, their "seasonal" plate included tomatoes, asparagus... and raspberries! These were mixed in with absolutely flavorless salumi, some sort of medicinal-tasting caponata, very low-quality parmesan, and then, in what must have been the kitchen's final "fuck you for ordering this crap we found in the back of the walk-in, you stupid customer" surrounded by a surfeit of ridiculous, ubiquitous basil oil. I was pissed at the pandering of the menu, to those people who don't know or care about seasonality or, barring that, good food.
We also ordered a pizza. The less said about that crackery flatbread, the better.
Of course, Dale Rice, our local paper's critic extraordinaire, who's never met a gloppy processed nacho cheese dish he didn't like, just went apeshit for the place. Great. He LIKED the pasta bolognese... which was served with giant shell pasta! WTF?
Another reason the Domain sucks. Where are the LOCAL seasonal restaurants? Is Austin really begging for shitty, overpriced Italianateish food out of freaking SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA?
I should tell you we got the food and our round of martinis free, after our waitress apparently quit in the middle of her shift and the managers lost our checks. Even for free, I wouldn't go back. That waitress had the right idea, taking a powder while she could.
www.foxrestaurantconcepts.com/north.html
