I understand that 7:30 on a Saturday night is a busy time. However if you're waiting tables during this time you should know how to handle the demands. When he finally returned with our bread (that's right, 20 minutes for bread) we immediately placed our orders. Then we waited. And waited. And waited. If the kitchen gets backed up and you don't have our food it's still polite to stop by the table, see if we'd like more bread and apologize for the delay. Oh, and perhaps see if we would like refills on our drinks. Other servers may take the approach of "stop by the table as infrequently as possible and let them slowly dehydrate as they wait for their food" but I'm pretty sure that my philosophy on waiting tables garners bigger tips.
At 8:40 DJ Gumbo was threatening to leave in five minutes if our food didn't appear. He still needed to eat and needed to leave no later than 9:15 to make it to the Manayunk Brew Pub in time to start his set at 10pm (Yes, he really is a DJ). I left the table in search of our waiter to locate our food or a manager to bitch at. I got as far as the kitchen door when our waiter emerged with our food. DJ Gumbo and Strawberry Tartcake both ordered steaks. DJ Gumbo said his was good but Strawberry Tartcake thought hers was "Meh". I tried hers and I'd have to agree, "meh". Shirazsta ordered the chicken cutlets. It was essentially chicken parmigiana. I didn't try it, he didn't comment, but it didn't look worthy of the $17 price tag.
I ordered the Flatbread ($10 lump crab, mushrooms, mozzarella and chives and a small side of Fettucine Pomodoro ($7 pasta hand made on site).
The flatbread was flat. So flat it was more like a cracker than a flatbread. The mozzarella was funky. That's the best word I can give you. I don't know if it was a poor quality cheese or if it had just sat around for too long, but it was something I'd expect to find topping a Domino's pizza. That's not a compliment. The chives didn't help. They showed up on the plate but weren't noticed on the palette. It isn't something I'd be willing to try again.
Now the Fettucine Pomodoro? Yeaaah. I don't know if anyone let the cooks in the back know, but salt is no longer traded pound for pound with gold. It's quite cheap and readily available. UCG is located in Wilmington's Little Italy district. Pomodoro, voted best upscale Italian Restaurant for two years running, is across the street. If you're going to taut your pasta in this area you'd better bring your "A" game.
After DJ Gumbo split we moved our empty water glasses and his empty beer bottle to his place. There they would sit for the remainder of our time at the restaurant. DJ Gumbo finished his beer before we received our bread. This means the empty container sat on the table for over an hour without being cleared away. Shirazsta made the mistake of ordering a soda which also sat empty on the table for nearly as long without an offer of a refill. This really irritated me because they charged $2.50 for the soda. $2.50? For a coke? Bitch please I can get a 44oz Big Gulp at 7-11 for less than that! I had to steal the salt and pepper shakers from another table as ours didn't have them. I can only assume that the proprietors of UCG hold the steak purist belief that A1 or Worcestershire sauce is sacrilegious as neither of my dining companions were offered either of these.
Half empty water glasses and empty beer bottle that sat on the table.
At the end of the meal when almost all other tables had cleared out our waiter was suddenly much more available asking if we'd need anything else, if we needed boxes, etc. I ordered an espresso martini and the tiramisu which I was told was made on premises. The tiramisu was good, but far from the best I've had. The main tenant of tiramisu is espresso soaked ladyfingers. Espresso is supposed to be very strong. The coffee in this dish was far from winning any strongman competitions. They also hadn't thoroughly soaked the fingers so it left the taste a bit flat. I believe it was served with what was supposed to be some sort of whipped cream but tasted like Cool-Whip, only waxier. The espresso martini was a twist on the menu variant created by our waiter. This was outstanding and makes me wonder if perhaps he was better suited to mixology than servology. To this, my hat is off to him. If I had come to hang out at the bar and listen to the live music while sipping on this beauty I'd have no complaints about my experience.
This was a dining experience bust. The waiter was much more attentive once we were the only table left but that didn't make up for over an hour of being forgotten. I don't mean to rag to hard on him because I understand the human factor of being a server. For all I know he could have had a shit day, difficult tables in the other dining room, or any number of things that caused him to be off his game. However the food itself was lackluster and that killed it for me. I may possibly try them again for lunch sometime but only if they up their game.
Union City Grille - I wouldn't cross a picket line for them.
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