Juliette SUCKS!

Okay, most of you that know me knows that I like food. I like going out to eat and I like cooking at home. I'm no professional chef or food critic or anything but I know what I like. When I go out to eat I don't expect the food to be 5 star restaurant quality or anything. As long as it's tasty I am fine. Also the service counts too. If the foods good but you get shitty service. It ruins the whole experience. You know what I mean?
So it was my friend's birthday and we wanted to have a nice Champagne brunch for her. We picked Juliette on N 5th St and Bedford cause they had Champagne and it was a place we have never been to. This place is suppose to be a French bistro type of place. I've seen this place and it looks nice from the outside so maybe the food is good. I was wrong. I mean the food wasn't bad or anything. I've had better. I had ordered the Minute Steak. Which I guess means a small steak with fries. The steak was tiny. I ordered it medium rare but got medium well and it was a bit chewy and kind of grainy. The fries were very hard. It was kind or like it was fried and then re-fried again. Anyways all that I can overlook but the kicker was. I had made my Grand Marnier Tofu cheese cake for her and brought it to have as dessert. We asked our waiter if we can get some plates for serving at which poiut he told us that there would be a plating fee which would be $2.50 per person. There were 11 of us so it would have been $27 for them to give us some plates and forks. We were like okay, just because it my friends birthday and we wanted to celebrate it with a cake. Anyways our waiter left and then came back to let us know that instead of the $2.50 plating fee it would be a $5.00 service fee per person. We were like are you kidding me? FORGET IT! It wasn't even like the place was that busy. I've been to restaurants where they were okay if you brought a birthday cake and was happy to serve it for you without a fee. At this point I was really over it. Then my friend tells me that he had called them earlier to make reservation and had asked if he can bring a bottle of champagne that his wife(my friends birthday)liked, but they wanted a $25 corkage fee.
All in all this has been one of my worst restaurant experiences. I would never go back to this place and wouldn't recommend it to any of my friends. I guess want was I expecting around Bedford. I mean there are only a handful of restaurants around Bedford that have really good food and service without the attitude. The rest are just crappy restaurants that goes after the trendies that goes there to hangout and to be seen. Now you know I'm pissed if I'm ranting about something on this blog. I usually don't complain about much but I am so over these restaurants that pretend to be something that they're not. They all have these gimicky decor and menues and all they're trying to do is hide they're shitty food. Okay okay. I've had my say. No more ranting. Hope everyone else had a good weekend.

Birthday Desserts! ( part 2 1/2 )

I kind of over did it on this recipe. Hehe... This recipe was meant for a rectangular glass baking dish and serves 8, so I decided to make then into individual mini cheesecakes for easier distribution. Don't have to bring the dish and have to worry about cutting and stuff. So I tripled the recipe, 8 servings per recipe so 3x8 is 24. I should get about 24 mini cheesecakes and did I get 24 mini cheesecakes? Of course and 2 large rectangular glass baking dish size as well! I guess we'll have to figure out how to finish them. Here are pictures.

Birthday Desserts! ( part 2 )

So here is the second dessert I made. Grand Marnier Tofu Cheesecake with lemon and orange zest. As you can see in the first photo. There is one missing from the corner. First rule of thumb for a cook is to always taste everything before you serve it. Needed to make sure that it's okay. Maybe I should taste all the other ones just to be totally sure. Just kidding.

Birthday Desserts!

The weather yesterday was amazing. It was so nice to just have a day where you didn't have to bundle up to leave the house. Anyways we sat on our stoop for awhile and enjoyed the weather. So our friend birthday is today and I wanted to make him some birthday desserts. Couldn't make up my mind on which dessert to make. The Grand Marnier Tofu Cheesecake or the Spiced Chocolate Pudding. So I decided to make both! Of course. Here are some pictures of the chocolate pudding. Don't know if there's enough for everyone? Oh well. First come first serve. I guess.

3 Sausages!

Over the weekend we had our friend Lalana's dog Thomas with us for 4 days. Finnegan and Quigley had loads of fun with him. Of course after Thomas left, Paul and I decided that two dogs is enough. Even though they are not very big dogs they are a hand full. With two you can carry one in each arm to go up and down the stairs, but with three you kind of have to take two down and then go back to get the third. Lets just say that it kind of screws up the whole balance. Anyways you can't really tell who's who in the picture but there is three dogs running around on the couch. The last picture is Thomas giving Quigley a bit of a lick...:)

Spring is on Sharon Street!

Paul taking pictures of all the plants and flowers blooming on 20 Sharon Street. As you can see the Magnolia tree is starting to bloom in our neighbors yard and in the second picture there are crocuses and tulips blooming in our garden. So ready for the warm weather!