Fallen Souffle

I know I haven’t posted recipes lately, Evan and I have been eating out a lot recently. But I promise I have some in the works!

Monday was our 2nd wedding anniversary and we decided to use our gift certificate from Christmas to go to Spice Street in Chapel Hill for our dinner. I chose Spice Street because I went a couple years ago for a work function and really liked the food and the atmosphere of it. I figured it would be something different for us to try. I made a reservation online for 7:45pm to avoid any traffic and received an email confirmation letting me know everything was set. I really had high expectations for this visit, as I fondly remember my previous experience and was looking forward to a nice meal with my hubby.

Upon walking in to Spice Street, I was shocked at how loud it was, the restaurant has high ceilings but it was MUCH louder than I expected. I looked farther in the restaurant to see an ocean of blue, the UNC Radio Show was apparently taking place, the day after winning the ACC Championship over NC State. You all know Evan is the biggest NC State fan in the universe as well as the biggest UNC hater. The blood rushed from his face as we both realized what was happening. The band was playing, people were cheering; it was not the place for a red blooded fan to be. I seriously thought Evan was going to walk out. The hostess informed us it would only being going on for another 15 minutes. This would have been a nice thing to know when I made the reservation, I would have made it later or even picked another night to avoid this setting. Not the romantic atmosphere I was hoping for our anniversary dinner.

We were seated upstairs, thanks God, thought it was still really loud and obnoxious. I could see Evan was visibly uncomfortable. We placed our drink orders but didn’t received them until after we ordered, which was about 10 minutes later. I order the calamari appetizer and the marinated grilled shrimp and scallops while Evan got the New York Steak and potatoes. It was the most excruciating 20 minutes as we waited for the “pep rally” to finally finish, Evan getting more and more tense. He quickly finished his beer and ordered a whiskey on the rocks as she brought out my calamari. The calamari was actually very good, it came with a smoked chili aioli which was as good as I remembered, it is still the only good thing about the dinner.

We received our dinners, which had a nice modern presentation, of course the portions are always smaller than usual restaurants and Evan commented that he liked the fingerling potatoes but could have used 12 more. The shrimp and scallops were almost over spiced, I realize it is called Spice Street but it was way overpowering. The risotto was creamy but didn’t have alot of flavor. Evan didn’t say much about his steak until he found a piece of plastic wrapping in it. He mentioned it to the waitress but no one ever came over to address it. We didn’t want to make a huge deal of it, but it would have been nice for a manager to come over and address the meal and our experience. I kinda expect this when I am dropping $100 for a meal, gift certificate or not.

So we tried to end the meal on a sweet note with dessert. Evan ordered the “World Famous” wonton sundae and I got the “Signature Flavored” creme brulee. I also ordered some champagne because damnit it’s our anniversary! We were again disappointed. The creme brulee did not have a thin layer of crisp sugar but instead had a thick candy coating that got stuck in my teeth. The center was also grainy, not the smooth texture I love in creme brulees. Evan’s sundae was essentially wonton noodles mixed with ice cream with hot fudge sauce. He said it was weird having to chew his ice cream. We kinda expected the wontons to only be on top, then again there wasn’t much description of them available.

So overall we were very disappointed with our experience at Spice Street. The food did not leave me “wanting more”, the service could have been much better and the atmosphere was really ruined with the ongoing pep rally. It would have been much nicer if we were made aware of this event going on beforehand. I think we would have reacted the same way if it were another team, the principle is that the mood was really ruined.

I am hoping we can find a nice restaurant during our trip to Park City that can make up for this! See Evan’s review of Spice Street here.

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