Equus Restaurant & Loungebar

I had the shrimp carbonara, my wife had the beef wellington.  My pasta was over cooked and the shrimp was mixed throughout with the tails still on.  Maybe that's normal but it's not very efficient to have to remove tails as you work through pasta.  The wellington was more of a stew in pastry, rather than a beef portion.  I like the iPad menu concept, though it needs to be developed a little more.  And the environment was nice.  Music volume was good.  I had a nice evening overall.  I just wish the food was better.  I'll try it again in six months to a year.

It's been about 10 days since I emailed the restaurant manager with my issues regarding their Sunday Easter Brunch and I've yet to receive any kind of response.  I'm not really even expecting one at this point, hence the review.  So - I've edited the letter I sent to Ken and am posting it as a review instead.  

Positive points:  the arugula, asparagus and corn salad was tasty.  The Israeli couscous salad was also good.  Not spectacular, but light and fresh.  The poached salmon was tender and cooked nicely.  The lox tray offered everything I would want, capers included, and it was all delicious.  My husband said the breakfast potatoes were quite good.

Negative points:  The shrimp were mushy and not all were cleaned properly; the bloody Mary was anything but a bloody Mary.  I don't know what the bartender was pouring that day, but it was foul and I sent it back.  The beer was warm.  The lighting in the buffet area was so dim I could not tell if the food was fresh.  The warmers barely kept the food warm.  The wet dessert cakes had no distinct flavors, save for the tiramisu, which was just ok.  Some of the fruit was unripe, but some was very good too, and some was tainted w/ the flavor of the food from the adjacent lox tray.  The men at the omelet and meat stations looked depressed and didn't smile once that I noticed.  No alcoholic drinks were included in the exorbitant fee that was charged.  Not even one mimosa made with cheap champagne.

The REALLY negative points: $171 for brunch for 3?  Only 2 alcoholic beverages, one soda and one coffee were consumed.  And then you want to automatically include the 20% tip??  

The one point in my letter that I wanted addressed most was this: "I would appreciate that you acknowledge this email, and offer some explanation as to why we received below-standard quality for the exorbitant price we paid.   We feel grossly cheated out of what we really hoped would have been a much better experience."

My mother in law was so astounded after we told her our experience that she either called or went to the restaurant to discuss this in person w/ someone.  We ate there w/ her a few years earlier on Easter Sunday and the cost was nowhere NEAR the $200 range, and there were twice as many of us.  She was told that there were menus on every table indicating the cost and that tip would be included.  Well, color me clueless, because we did not have such luck.  Our waitress sat us, asked if we were having the brunch, and she proceeded to tell us where to get plates.   We never saw a menu.  Had we seen the menu, we would have left and found some other place to go.  Ain't no brunch at Equus worth $50/head, withOUT booze.  What a joke.

The food was good but the service was not - untrained waitress - we brought very nice Pinot and given thick lipped stemware - later noticed table across had proper Pinot stemware - she also served across us like a farm table and tried to hurry us before we finished entree and desert and there were plenty if tables and it was only just past 8 - will return to bar but not dining room