As you may or may not know, Gabriel and I donate blood regularly every 8 weeks. When we moved to FL and continued the tradition we’d started in NYC, we found that the donation center here gives a restaurant gift card after every 3 donations. Score! Everyone wins!

We decided to go to Mattison’s City Grille.  On our first attempt, a loud, not-very-good, cover band was playing and we decided to change our plans. We tried again a couple of weeks later and found a great jazz band playing and we asked to be seated.

We sat at a corner table on the outside edge of the dining area (and didn’t realize until later that the smell of gasoline from the torches would repeatedly waft over to us). The waiter came over and took our order, and at that time we also asked for bread, water, and utensils. We did not see our waiter again until almost 30 minutes later, when he showed up with our bread and entrees all together at the same time. We still had no water or utensils. We requested them. More than 5 minutes later, another waiter walked by and we asked HIM to bring us water and utensils, which he gladly did immediately.

Our food was actually pretty good, and had the service not completely ruined it, my opinion on Mattison’s would be quite different. The bread and butter were both delicious, with touches of rosemary and garlic. The salmon that topped the dinner salad was fresh, and cooked exactly right. The mushrooms that came with the ravioli were meaty and probably my favorite part of the meal. The ravioli and sauce were also excellent.

Overall, well, I’m not really sure. Did we just get one really bad waiter but maybe the others are all good? We still have another gift certificate so I guess we’ll go back eventually. I’ll let you know!