Monday, June 21, 2010

Public's Gilt City "Deal" Was Anything But

(Public. It looks much better inside)

I bought Gilt City's $150 deal on a 5-course tasting menu for two with wine at Public. A Michelin Star winner, Public is normally a fantastic restaurant, and $150 is a helluva deal to include wine pairings. Or so you'd think.

The tasting menu was only 3 for 5, with flavorless venison and a terrible dessert. Wines were only 2 for 5. (None were bad, but only 2 were actually good.) The server never bothered to ask us how anything tasted, and the incredibly fast pace got us out in just over 70 minutes. (For 5 courses! Is this an Applebee's?)

Overall, we felt treated like we had used a gift certificate. I did like Public, a lot. Now I'll probably never go back. My wife certainly won't. And I definitely won't trust Gilt City just because the restaurant is top-notch.

Gilt City (free membership required)

Update: I sent this feedback to Gilt, and Gilt gave me $25 for use on a future Gilt purchase. But far more valuable was the apology, sent directly from the president of Gilt City. Nice touch.

Friday, June 18, 2010

HBO FAIL


HBO.com told me today to "upgrade" from Chrome to Firefox or Safari. That's so incredibly ignorant of them, I'm considering an upgrade from HBO to "no HBO" (otherwise known as "NOBO").