As I write this, today is our anniversary. 6 years! We have, however, been together much longer. During this time, it has been a roller coaster of highs and some lows, but the highs make it all worthwhile!! I would not want to be on this crazy ride with anyone else!!
To celebrate, we went out last night, since today we are on Grandma & Papa O duty, watching our beautiful, fun granddaughter. (I know it’s hard to believe we are grandparents because we look so young and seem so cool!!). I am part of a Facebook group for the city we live in and many times there are great posts of what to do, eat, see in the neighborhood. I read a post about a new restaurant in Shelby Township called Mr. G’s Chophouse. Had rave reviews, some not so great and some just dumb, like “I would never go to a fine dining restaurant in a strip mall”. Seriously? Some of the best hidden gems are in unusual locations.
The only way to make reservations is to call. If you do before they open, you will get directed to “google assist”? Omar went through that process, and it essentially made the reservations for him, sending multiple confirmation and reminders. I much prefer the OpenTable route, but the reservation process did go smoothly.
When we arrived, the restaurant was not too busy, and we were directed to our table right away. The ambiance was nice, with a nice mix of fancy and casually inviting. The bar area was on the smaller side, fitting just about 12 people. Being new, it was clean and the booths super comfy. We were brought bread right away, which was good, not great. Fresh small loafs of sliced Italian bread, with a compound butter that needed a bit more seasoning. Nothing super special. They also poured us ice cold water right away – great start.
That is when we waited. And waited. And waited. 20 minutes went by with us watching all the tables around us being taken care of. Finally, we had enough, and Omar went to the bar to order our drinks and ask if we even had a server. They apologized profusely, and the manager came to our table to apologize as well. We said at that time we just wanted to move to the bar to ensure service. She started to say “I will take care of your… then trailed off and said I will take care of something…” which (spoiler alert) she did not do. The assigned server did apologize as well, but no explanation was offered.
The bartender, Desireé, was awesome and the highlight of the evening. She was charming, had great stories and suggestions, and so friendly. She offered tastes of new booze, where we tried a new gin called Alkemist which is “distilled by the light of the full moon”. Wow was this different. Very herbaceous, and you can really taste the 21 botanicals used in the distillation process. Highly recommended. Her “sample” to me was essentially a free martini with a lemon twist. Assisting Desireé was Sierra. Also, helpful and friendly!! Both right on top of things to ensure we had great service.
For drinks, I ordered the Prickly Pear Martini. Fun fact, Prickly Pear is not a pear, but a cactus. Explained why it did not taste like fruit LOL. It was very nice as it was more on the sour side rather than sweet which I like. I just can’t handle drinks that are too sweet. Omar got his standard Gin Martini, made with the Alkemist, with 3 anchovy stuffed olives. Yes, if you are asking, that is gross and makes the martini taste like you are drinking aquarium water, but each their own, I guess. He said the martini was exceptional.
The menu has a good number of offerings from seafood to steaks to homemade gnocchi. To get a good sampling, we opted to try a few appetizers and sides, in lieu of a full dinner. I started with the steak bites, which were highly recommended. Omar started with the special of the day, Oysters Rockefeller. The steak bites were salted way too heavily. They were almost too salty to eat. It seemed like each steak bite was rolled in course salt, then sauteed. The steak was also a lower grade steak as they were chewy, with little beef flavor. Although if they did have a good beef flavor, it was dominated by the salt. Omar had planned on just eating oysters, starting with the Rockefeller. The Rockefeller had flavorful topping, and they served 6 instead of the customary 3, which was great, but the oysters itself stayed uncooked and did not create a cohesive bite as Rockefeller usually does. The oysters seemed to slide right out from under as they stayed partially uncooked.
Omar then changed his mind from continuing with oysters for his meal. He pivoted and ordered Calamari which also was recommended. I wanted to try the gnocchi, since it was touted as “homemade”. They offered it as a side dish, with a garlic butter sauce, and you can add crab, which I did. The Calamari was fried with little to no sauce (just a small smear below the calamari). There was nothing special about these, and seemed the same quality one would get at a basic chain restaurant. My gnocchi fell below the mark as well. They were boiled, tossed in a bit of butter, with a few chunks of what seemed to be canned crab on top. The first few bites were almost tasteless, until I realized all the seasoning was on the bottom and needed a good stir. This could have been elevated by sautéing the gnocchi in a brown butter sauce, adding fresh garlic and chunks of fresh crab. Let’s just say it may aaaaight as a side, but you would not want it as a main dish.
We opted for dessert, which we usually never do, but hey, it’s our anniversary. Omar got the brownie hot fudge sundae, which was good, but too much to finish. I thought it needed more ice cream and less brownies as I am an ice cream lover, but Omar said it was a perfect ratio. I got the Crème Brulé which came with strawberries and blueberries. The custard was as expected, but the sugar needed to be more caramelized, and the strawberries seemed a bit dried out like they were cut long ago.
They knew it was our anniversary, so they brought out a plate that said Happy Anniversary in chocolate and strawberry sauce. But those wondering, no we did not get our dessert for free for our anniversary, or even a round of drinks comped as the manager alluded to. The manager did not comp anything for us being ignored for over 20 minutes at the start. We also did not want to be “those kind of people” that insisted.
Sitting at the bar is always fun for us as we meet great people and have great conversations. Met a nice older couple and we discussed bourbon and food snobbishness. There was a younger couple who sat by us and bought us all shots to celebrate our anniversary. Very kind of them!!
In conclusion, we wanted to love this restaurant. We may give it another chance as they are new and working the kinks out. If closer, we would go back for sure just for Desireé and the bar experience. We do have some go to restaurants where the food is just mediocre, but the bar scene is fun, and this would probably be on that list. Try it for yourself and let us know what you think!