The reservation was for 7:30 for 4; despite being on time, we were not seated til 8:15. I'm not sure how this goes, exactly -- whether there are just some patrons who linger and there's nothing to be done, or whether it's indicative of poor planning. They were friendly about it, and said they would come get us upstairs when the table was ready. Unfortunately, I was starving when I got there, so I continued to starve while we waited.
After sitting down at our table (and being thanked for our patience), we finally got to order. I had already perused the RW menu in the same way I did the Kushi RW menu, and determined that at Smith Commons, the RW deal is probably akin to getting the dessert and one drink free (depending on what you order). I have been eating a lot of chicken lately, so I went all beef: beef carpaccio, beef burger, and if there had been a beef dessert I probably would have ordered that too. As it was, I decided on the lava cake.
We'd been given bread, which tided me over the couple minutes til the carpaccio arrived. I love beef, I love rare/raw beef, and I thought the carpaccio was great. Tasty, great cheese, a good portion -- I was pleased with this appetizer. One dining companion got the endive salad, which was a pleasant mix of flavors, and nice and light.
Part of the RW menu at Smith Commons was the inclusion of a beer; in my case, I ordered the Ommegang Abbey Ale, which I'd had on one of my previous visits. I sipped the beer and tried to converse with my friends, but it was a little difficult due to the near-overwhelming noise level that persisted through most of the meal.
I've mentioned I love barely-cooked meat. I had ordered my hamburger "on the rare side of medium rare", and my companions had ordered medium rare, and medium. The least-cooked hamburger came out medium well, and mine was solidly brown all the way through. There were onions mixed in with the meat, a grilled portabella on top of the burger, and it was accompanied by a side of fries. The fries were alright, but having my burger come out overcooked just disappointed me thoroughly. There was some red meat (barely!) in the other burgers, but mine was definitely the most cooked of them all. I informed our server, who offered to take it back, but I declined when I was told that it might be another 15 minutes before I could get a properly (un-)cooked one. I ate some more of the burger, but the fight had been taken out of me, and I eventually left about 1/3 of it on the plate.
I was hoping that dessert would return me to the post-carpaccio feeling, as I love chocolate lava cake. I was a little surprised at the apparently small portion of the cake when it came, but understood once I took a bite -- this dessert was rich and chocolately. Unfortunately, it lacked anything resembling cakey-ness, which I'd been expecting from the name "Belgian Chocolate Lava Cake". It was fine, and came with a whipped cream that had clearly been made with vanilla beans (also tasty), but it wasn't great.
One of my companions had gotten the sorbet trio (chocolate and two fruits), which she said was so-so, and another had gotten the creme brulee, which was one of the least flavorful creme brulees I have ever tried. It was definitely custardy, and the texture was right, but it tasted surprisingly bland.
I had been extremely excited to eat at Smith Commons, but after waiting for nearly 45 minutes, and having a horribly overcooked burger followed by an unexceptional dessert... I'm not going to lie; I was disappointed. It's only been open for a couple weeks, and I know that Restaurant Week can be a tough time for some restaurants, so perhaps they just need to work out the kinks. The carpaccio was great, and I still have my eye on the Mango Moulard, but it will be a while before I have any interest in returning for a full meal in the dining room. For now, I'll just stick to the awesome second floor and the $5 Smith Hour drafts.
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