Pages

11.12.2008

Home Away From Home: Part 2

This October I went to the Cape twice -- on Columbus Day weekend (as is tradition) and also the following weekend (to finally check out the Wellfleet Oyster Festival).



I was looking forward to my annual visit to The Wicked Oyster. Unfortunately, things didn't start off so well and kept getting worse. I wanted to go the first weekend when my boyfriend was with me, but we had a group of 7 and couldn't get a reservation. We went next door to the Duck Creeke Tavern instead. While it was nice, it was no Wicked Oyster in my book. The following weekend when I returned to the Cape with some friends, we still had a large group that needed to be accommodated. My mother knew how much I wanted to go to the Wicked Oyster and made a reservation at the only time they had available to seat a party of 8: 9:30 p.m. When we got there at 9:15, we were told we would be seated soon. At 10:30 we finally had a table. If there hadn't been a Red Sox game on in the bar and delicious cranberry mojitos to sip, I might have just given up.

Our waitress didn't seem to think much of the fact that we had waited an hour for a table we had reserved. When I used to waitress, if I had an upset table, I would work my hardest to make my customers happy, even if I hadn't been the cause of their problem. She clearly didn't think that way. She continued our miserable experience by being somewhat inattentive and blase.

But on to the food... I ordered the butternut squash soup and the pan roasted catch of the day. The soup was just ok. My dad makes a better one. And the catch of the day was black cod, served with fingerling potatoes, leeks, and littlenecks in a cream sauce. The fish was nicely cooked and overall I enjoyed the dish.

My brother and my roommate both got the night's special, which was salmon resting on spinach vichyssoise with a cornmeal salmon cake. It would have been fine had the salmon been cooked. My roommate sent hers back in spite of the waitress's explanation that salmon is usually cooked medium rare. No, tuna is cooked medium rare. Salmon should be fully cooked, at least that's what I've always heard, unless you're having sushi. Has she not read this? (Of course I didn't bring it up as dinner, as much as I may have wanted to.)

Everyone else seemed to enjoy their meals (sole, fried calamari, lamb ravioli, veggie ravioli), but I think being seated so late and feeling so neglected left us all feeling a bit disappointed with the whole evening.

I've had other experiences there that have been wonderful, but this year just left a bad taste in my mouth, and I'm not sure I'll be able to go back for more than a cranberry mojito next year, but hopefully I can remember the good times and give it another chance.