Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Picture Of The Week




Mickey Mouse pancakes...yummy.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Picture Of The Week




Sunset in Key Largo at Jimmy Johnson's Big Chill.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

The Raconteurs "Steady, As She Goes"

Chill Out With Some Ice Cream

Grab a friend, coworker, whoever and head to Coldstone for this great deal.

2 Like it size ice cream cups with 1 mix-in topping for just $5! Expires 8/31/10.

For coupon, click here.

Thanks to wsvn for the coupon which we spotted the advertisement at!

Picture Of The Week



Ewww! This was eating our garden plants but not anymore.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

The Conch House Review

Where to even begin with this review… Upon hearing of the Key Largo Food and Wine Festival we got excited to attend an event, and The Conch House stood out to us for several reasons. First, we frequent Key Largo always driving by the restaurant and always mentioning we must eat there someday. Second, the place is your Mom and Pop looking cozy restaurant and it’s this charm that drew our attention to it. If you aren’t paying attention you might miss it as it’s hidden behind some trees and all that’s visible from the road is some outside seating. The restaurant is located on MM 100.2 in a pink house, with a wraparound porch that provides seating both inside or out. At night the tiki torches are lit up which accent the surrounding garden, giving it a tropical feel.

So we make our reservations two weeks in advanced at 8 p.m. to attend the event called Sweet Dreams Dessert & Wine Buffet. As we await the date to attend, our excitement continues to grow especially after looking at the pictures of the dessert on the flyer. The flyer on the Key Largo Food and Wine Festival says desserts to be served are, dark chocolate torte, panna cotta with fresh berries, apple walnut tart, key lime bars, and peach crepes with 3 wines Donnafugata Ben Rye, Banfi Rosa Regale, and Campbells Rutherglen Tokay. Yet the Conch House website mentions they will be serving 5 wines instead of 3. I’m no wine connoisseur, so none of this meant anything to me but I was excited for my guy and I to try something different and romantic.

By the time we arrive it was 10 minutes passed our reservation time and we go up to the hostess to give her our information. Never once does she look at her reservation list to make sure I am who I say I am, nor does she ask if we're there for the event or dinner. She then proceeds to tell us that they're running a bit late but it’ll only take a few minutes and to have a seat in their courtyard. We don’t mention anything, we are fine in waiting a few minutes but mention to each other how can this happen if we have reservations, we shouldn’t have to wait. Nonetheless we take a few pictures and admire its charm while we wait. As we are waiting to be seated we see that the hostess preps up a table but other people are waiting as well so we aren’t sure if it’s our table or not. Then she calls us over from where she is standing which is a good 10 feet away and asks from afar with tone, “Are you ready?” Wait, what? Am I ready? Because I’m waiting on you to set up my table. So are you ready? However, we don’t mention anything and presume she’s a bad hostess with a bad attitude. We walk up to her when she notices us standing next to her waiting for her to walk us over to our table, but instead she motions with her hand towards a table and says in a bad tone, “It’s over there.” Very impolite and with attitude. And motioning towards a table instead of walking us over…who does that? I get better hostess service at Chili’s on 49 street!

Still, we try to brush it off. Our waitress comes to our table, introduces herself, and we tell her we are there for the event. She asks if we’ve received wristbands to wear for the event and we say no. No one mentioned it before. Perhaps it was the hostess job? That would explain it. The waitress explains how the buffet works and goes to find us some wristbands. When she comes back she’s empty handed and says they are trying to find us wristbands. Unorganized much. Yet she still tells us to go inside to the buffet and explain to the women handing out wine/dessert the issue with the wrist band. Why should we have to explain that to her if its not our problem? By this point we are already getting fed up with the bad and unorganized service.

We go inside and the room is very small, which gives it its cozy feel, however made it feel very claustrophobic. In fact, there were only a few tables inside and the space to move around in is very uncomfortable. The buffet was placed on a small table with no signs of the names of dessert/wine, so the guest had no idea of what things were. We explain to the lady serving the food the issue with the wristband (after she asked us) but also explain it was our first time and if it could be explained how it worked. She just started off by telling us what people normally like to start off with first, then cuts the conversation to ask the gentleman in front of me something who had already been served. Finally giving me her undivided attention she serves me this sorry piece of chocolate cake that looks like a brownie I make at home, with a small glass of the wine. And there were only 3 wines featured instead of 5 like The Conch House website stated.

The size of the dessert's and wine were a disappointment, especially for a whole $18.00 per person. Let alone the horrible service and how unorganized they were. As a matter of fact they can’t even get their time correct. The website says it was from 7-9 p.m., yet the food and wine website says it’s from 7-10p.m. and so did a sign at the restaurant.

It was a huge disappointment, and next time we won’t trade charm over service. Nor will we be returning to the Conch House anytime soon. We know this review was awfully long but we wouldn’t take our time to do it if we didn’t feel other people should know what horrible, bad attitude, and unorganized service was given to us.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Picture Of The Week



Downtown area by The Intercontinental Hotel.