Amuse was not so entertaining!

I was so excited to try Amuse last week after reading the review in the Richmond-Times. I had reservations for that exact night for my book club to check it out. We arrived on time for our reservation for 12 and were lead to two tables apart from each other that seated 6 each. We asked if we could push the tables together and were told, "no, someone might see and want to do again!". So we sighed and split our party up. From there to me it was like we were two different tables, our drink orders, food orders, and dessert orders were all taken separately and served separately. We started with wine ($9-13 a glass)- but generous pours. We ordered appetizers and entrees shortly afterwards. The appetizers came out about 25 minutes later - and were ok. I had the salad with goat cheese, papaya and mango. Both of the fruits were not ripe and hard. The mankintowne lettuce was quite tasty - and the little bit of goat cheese that I got was good. Other people at the table had the crab and corn soup (not bad) and the cheese plate. Then we waited, and waited, and waited.....for our entrees. Finally at quarter to nine they arrived. We were all a bit freaked out because the restauarant was supposed to close at nine. Our waitress who kept disappearing, assured us we would not be kicked out. 3 of the six us had ordered the steak special which was good. The steak was medium rare, with cheddar mashed potato's and served with tempura battered aspargus. Again the food was good - not great, but good. My friend Claire had ordered the escolar and it arrived looking nice - but she took one bite and realized the center of the fish was raw.....the waitress never came by to ask how our meal was....so we flagged down someone else who took the fish back to the kitchen....then Claire waited, and waited, and ......you get the picture. Finally when the waitress came back out - I flagged her over and said -my friend never got her dinner because she sent it back. She then disappeared again. Came back 10 minutes later empty handed and Claire said just box it up I will take it with me......I want dessert! Dessert looked great, I didn't have any - but the table ordered three orders of the profiteroles with vanilla ice cream, I took a bite and it was quite good. Then I got my bill....$82....for two glasses of wine, a salad, and a good entree. Wow! Sticker shock.....way too much. The waitress had added 20% gratuity to all of our checks too because we were a large party - never mind that we didn't even sit together and the service was terrible! Sigh.....Oh and we also never got any bread!!!!!!!! We were not happy about that!

Well Saturday was my in-laws 50th Wedding Anniversary and they wanted to check out the Tiffany exhibit and the restaurant. I already had the reservations for this, so I decided to give it one more try. I have to say - the service was much, much , better. BUT the menu was the same ableit smaller portions. We were going to Lemaire that night for dinner so I ordered light and got the cheese platter for $10. This came with 4 tiny portions of cheese, some flatbread, sliced green apples and honey. My 6 year old was with and wasn't about to eat anything on the menue except for cheese, so she got that as well. Better service, still expensive though. I have to say the museum addition is just gorgeous and I wanted so much to LOVE this restaurant - but I have to say that somethng must change before I spend any more money there.

Lemaire on the other hand was amazing as usual. Had the best mac and cheese of my life!!!!

Stuzzi

Saturday night, my 6 year old and I met friends (another Mother and daughter) for dinner at Stuzzi. We arrived at 6:00 pm and the place was already mostly filled. We did get a table right away and promptly ordered waters for the 6 year olds and a glass of wine for us older girls. The selection of wine by the glass was small - 4 each for white and red. I had not heard of any of the selections either - mostly Italian. I chose a chianti that was ok. The menu consists of appetizers/little bites, salads, pizza, and pasta. We ordered the calamari, an arugula salad, a sausage and rapini pizza, a wild mushroom pizza and a child's order of a 1/2 cheese and half pepperoni pizza. One thing we thought would have been good is if they would have gone over the menu with us or asked if it was our first time there, etc. The waitress seemed to be very hesitant - not sure if she was new or what.

The calamari and the salad arrived first. The calamari was nicely crisp and tasted very fresh. The marinara sauce that was served with it was good and plentiful. The arugula salad was ok. It was served with fresh parm and the dressing overpowered the spiciness of the arugula. The arugula was actually a bit mild.

The pizza was served shortly after the appetizers which were still half uneaten. We were running out of room on the table. The kid's pizza was made with fresh mozzarella and pepperoni. It was steaming hot when it hit the table. The girls really didn't eat much of it. I think they were too distracted with their Littlest Pet Shop toys and playing with each other to eat much. I tried it and it was quite tasty.

The sausage and rapini pizza was served with fresh basil as well on the top. The sausage was good and plentiful - though the rapini was not. I am a huge rapini fan and there really just wasn't a lot on the pizza. The mushroom pizza was served with an italian salami - can't remember which one and topped with the arugula mentioned above. I liked this one better though there wasn't actually much mushroom on it and the salami took over the palattte. It paired nicely with the crunch of the arugula. I used the remaining marina from the calamari to dip my pizza crust in and it was quite nice. There were a few parts of the crust that were burnt - but overall it was a really good pizza crust.

We were asked if we wanted to see the dessert menu - but since we had a ton of leftovers already we declined. By this time the restaurant was packed and had a line out the door. Bottom line, I would definitely try this restaurant again, they are open for lunch starting today, June 12th. I want to try the pasta's. It is fairly kid friendly - but I would go early like we did. Anyone else have any experience with this place yet?