Restaurant Calla

I’ve been to this place off an on for years. The menu has usually been a little boring for me and then the food was middle of the road and not worth reordering. The burger was always a safe bet because it’s one of the best in town. The dinner tonight was really fantastic. The cocktails were however a miss. I tried some that I’ve never had there so maybe that’s on me 0/3. The winner of the night was the food. The shrimp and grits was perfect albeit a smaller portion. The Brussels sprouts were also spot on perfect. They’re not your normal boring sprouts, and it’s a big enough portion to share or to turn into a meal. Looking forward to my next outing here.

We were underwhelmed by this restaurant partially because of the outrageously priced wine list for super mediocre, uninteresting wines that you can pick up from any grocery store. Four times the retails price is really ridiculous. We would have ordered a bottle if they had something good but a basic red for $160 is silly. The basic French red by the glass was over $20. Food was okay - chopped salad was beautiful but needed seasoning, shrimp and grits was nice, hanger steak was just okay. Service was attentive and really pleasant but "everything on the menus is amazing" is not terribly helpful when selecting a dish. Many people around us had the burger which looked very good.

First, let me start by: I really wanted to like this place… Unfortunately, as you can see in the picture: that didn’t work out. Our outing started out nice for my birthday brunch, but half way through my “chefs choice” omelette I was in for a rude awakening. I was pretty grossed out at what I found in my omelette (dark hair) and even more so at the conflict resolution between my server (Mary) and the Chef’s resolve. Firstly, we brought this up very calmly and kindly to our server and asked her if she could please take the plate away and she was apologetic (and SUPER soft spoken). I asked her as a alternative to the situation if she could bring just a new side of pulled pork and avocado sauce (the filling of the “chefs choice” omelette). I was extremely shocked (and even more grossed out) when she came back and said “chef inspected for more hairs and said it was clear and replated it for you”. 😳 I was really confused as to why they would replate the same omelette I was grossed out by and found the hair in and try to pass it off as okay. I was simply asking for a “new side of the pulled pork” I don’t know where that got lost in translation… When I asked our server (Mary) for the check, my girlfriend noticed she charged us for a pulled pork sandwich ($16) when we ordered a $22 chef choice omelette. We brought it up to her and she mentioned she wrote a sandwich when she first took the order. Very confusing and seems avoidant on behalf the management here. I figured a manager or even the chef would have tried to come out and resolve or at least be apologetic about the unwanted hair in my food. Sucks that this was my birthday brunch experience. Unfortunately, we won’t be coming back next time. 😕