My husband took me out to The Ryland Inn this past...

My husband took me out to The Ryland Inn this past Valentine's Day. It recently reopened with a new chef, Anthony Bucco. I am not sure that this is the best time to review the restaurant since it was a fixed menu, four course meal at $99/pp. In addition, there were three seatings, so we did feel a little bit rushed to get in and out.

The decor was excellent - pretty much what it looked like before all the pipes burst several years ago. The service was excellent. I appreciated the less snobby, more friendly attitude of the new wait staff. As I mentioned, however, they were hustling and bustling to get us in and out of there fast because of the 3 seatings that night. Our reservation was for 7 o'clock, so I imagine we were the middle seating.

The food was good for the most part. I had arugala salad with poppy seed dressing, organic scottish (I think) salmon and it was cooked to perfection. My husband had the poached egg on polenta and the filet mignon. They also gave us a pre-appetizer which consisted of about two bites of duck liver pate. I thought it was delicious, but my husband who is a big eater said it was too small to taste. Then they brought out the dessert. It consisted of an a brownish cake, topped with some kind of extruded geletin-like chocolate in a swirlyque with a tail off to the side, topped with an oval scoop of coffee ice cream. I'm embarrassed to say that my husband truthfully announced to the waiter that the dessert "looked like something they had found in the yard somewhere". At which point the couple next to us, who had just finished eating the same thing burst into laughter and said they had thought the exact same thing when they saw it!

Now, I think for Valentine's Day, the dessert chef could have at least had something red in there, instead of three colors of brown in shapes that resembled different consistencies of you-know-what. So somewhat disappointed with the dessert.

But the biggest disappointment of all was when we got the bill. They charged my husband $14.00 for his glass of Johnny Walker Black scotch. (He switched to beer once he found out the price). IN ADDITION, THEY ALSO CHARGED HIM $1.00 FOR "ROCKS" BECAUSE HE ORDERED IT "ON-THE-ROCKS"! Now that is a first in my book! And how petty to be nickled and dimed over a drink.

I had had three glasses of white wine at $10.00 per glass.These were perfectly measured. Personally, I hate when a restaurant does that. It makes much more sense not to be so stingy on the drinks. They make the most profit on these anyway and if they want people to come back they should just pour a generous drink in the first place.

I'm sorry to give this restaurant an average review because it used to be outstanding. But being rushed through dinner, eating what looked like excrement for dessert, and being charged for ice cubes just doesn't do it for me.