Barcelona - German Village

So my tour of German Village continues. We did Girls Night Out at Barcelona because I had heard they had a really nice patio. Once we got there I found out that one of my friends hadn't had a good experience there in the last four times he was there. The building was very interesting, as we passed through to go to the patio. A thought we should have re-thought since it was so hot and buggy out there. We sat down and ordered a nice red wine. The waiter started off very friendly and offered us bread service. We chatted while drinking wine, eating bread and swatting gnats. I wanted to try the crab flatbread appetizer and got a salad as well. A filet with potato puree and green beans and a caesar salad and the fish taco appetizer were ordered by my dinner companions. The waiter walked away and a busser walked by and cleaned up the bread plates. The waiter came back to ask my friend how she wanted her filet cooked. Strike one according to her. She ordered it Medium. The waiter came back and said he was sorry about forgetting our bread service (although he hadn't). Strike Two. It was becoming pretty clear that we were not a priority. The entrees arrived and the filet was served well done. My flat bread was soggy which makes me think it was done first and waited on the filet meal to be overdone. They did make an attempt to bring another entree to replace the overcooked filet, but at this point, we had written the place off. The waiter turned a bit snarky by the end of the meal. So, we left with a bad taste in our mouths and with one of us saying, "I told you so." The evening wasn't a complete wash, since we stopped at Denise's ice cream on the way home.

All in all - Barcelona isn't worth the money. Maybe go for the wine only and the ambiance of the dining room only. But I highly recommend Denise's Chai Tea Ice Cream. We should have just had ice cream for dinner!

Lindey's - German Village

I went to Lindey's on July 13th with my family to celebrate my parent's wedding anniversary. Lindey's was my brother's choice, but I had actually been to their location in the Polaris Mall (which is now gone). I hadn't really eaten an organized meal at Lindey's, but instead, had eaten off of appetizer-type buffets. Luckily we had made reservations for Saturday night, and I would suggest it if you go as well. There are a lot of tables, but they filled up quickly. Parking was a pain as well, but if you are used to the German Village, you will probably be fine with it. Lindey's does have valet if you get tired of driving around in circles.

We sat, ordered drinks and heard about their daily specials. I ended up with a tomato salad and the Caribbean Shrimp Pici Pasta. The pici pasta is made fresh daily per the waitress. I was very happy with the salad, but how can you mess up tomato wedges and fresh mozzarella. The pasta had a lot of shrimp, more than you usually get at restaurants. The pici pasta I was not wild about. For those of you who don't know what Pici pasta is please click here. If you took the minute to read that link, my pici pasta was not like this description at all. The pasta looked like a little kid in the basement was being paid to make "worms" out of dough. The pasta was tough and chewy and very hard to eat with a fork or spoon. I finished my dinner with a piece of Key Lime Pie that was delicious. Some other entrees that were ordered that night were the chopped salad, Honey Glazed Duck, Portobello Mushroom Ravioli, Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes and Sauteed Veal Medallions. While no one really complained about any one thing, the biggest issue was the quality for the amount of money. The service was very good for us. We did see a table get doused with water though. Maybe it was the guy's first day!

All in all, I would go back to Lindey's. I would not write off the restaurant because the pici pasta wasn't so good. Definitely give it a shot.