101 Eat & Drink

I was really looking forward to eating here.  The interior is amazing and very classy for an intimate date.  The service was quite slow and the drinks were kind of odd for "mixologist" style drinks.  The bartender, mixologist, whatever didn't really measure so that kind of told me something there.  Ordered a pasta dish that sounded delicious, but then it arrived with about 50% mushrooms which were not mentioned on the menu.  The server was nice about it, but I was surprised they would forget to mention that in an otherwise correct menu description.  I might give it another shot, but the drinks were odd flavored as was the food.  I'd probably come back to try the drinks one more time cause they did seem to have some booze in them.  I think I just had a rough night there.

"Should we go to 101?  Is it still happy hour there?"

I've found myself in this situation many times before.  101 is fine, but I always walk away underwhelmed.  I usually go with folks for happy hour because, honestly, I wouldn't deem it worth a visit unless I was getting their menu at a reduced rate and I had company that wanted to go there.  Such was the case last night.

I'm underwhelmed, mostly, by the food.  While it pops on the menu as sounding inventive and delicious, I often feel let down by it.  Last night my friend and I ordered the calamari, the veggie quesadilla, and the primavera pizza.  All of these were... okay.  Just okay.  The calamari was probably the best of the three and largely because of the flavor of the accompanying sweet potato ketchup.  The primavera pizza was a step up from dining hall pizza... and that's about it.  Our drinks were good, strong, and tasty, though.

But what is up with the atmosphere there?  I look to my left and I see a waterfall wall behind the bar.  There are fish glass cut-outs lit from behind on one wall.  There are wooden relief sculptures around the booths.  There are gigantic 50"+ LCD TVs in the corners broadcasting football.  Wait, what?  Is this a sports bar?  I'm so confused.

The servers have always been nice, but not particularly attentive.  

All in all, 3 stars because it's... okay.  And nothing more.

Best "gastro pub" in Corvallis, and I'm a local and have been to all the other pubs in this town on more than one occasion. Creative dishes , great drinks and restful, kind of arty atmosphere. Some items on the menu seem to change about once a month, so there's always something new.The service has always been great every time I've been there. And, this is important, the chairs are very comfortable. There's a few bars in this town that are very good, but the seating is so uncomfortable you can't stay too long. My Hubby likes all the sports on the flat screen TV's, I'd rather have no TV's, but at least the volume is off.