A great evening begins with pre-dinner libations at the Franklin Hotel or rooftop at the West End Wine Bar. The perfect ending to a night of noshing is dancing the night away under the stars on the gorgeous patio at Cafe La Rez.

I will start positive. The restaurant was celebrating a Carnival event and the atmosphere was suitable. The dining area was decorated with balloons and pleasant music was playing in the background. The staff were smartly dressed in black and white with charming appropriately styled hats.

Unfortunately, the pleasantries ended there. Although the salad bar had more to offer than the typical Ruby Tuesday fare, it seemed like a smaller selection than we had experienced in our previous visit. The salad bar hosted an assortment of typical fare coupled with a reasonable selection seafood, cheese, and garnishes. Despite a couple good cheese offerings, no suitable accompaniment was offered. There were no crackers and the two breads offered were either sweet or cheesy. We did not try the seafood and the salad was average.

Although the salad bar was a little disappointing, we had come for the meat so we moved on. In retrospect, we should have cut our losses at $25 for the salad bar and left. We continued our dining experience with the $35 all you can eat (stomach) meat buffet.

First we tried the ribs. With no noticeable charring, the ribs were about as dry and crisp as they could be without turning to ash. These were not only unpleasant, but totally inedible. Our memories fostered hope; there were other meats to try.

Next, we tried the garlic steak. This meat was moist and almost tender. The flavor was salty but pleasant. Yes, our hope was returning. We can’t wait for the bacon wrapped filet and chicken that we remember fondly.

The lamb we received next was fatty, tough, and inconsistently cooked. After 5 minutes attempting to cut off a piece of edible meat we gave up. Our one slice of well-done, medium, rare lamb was simply to fatty and tough to salvage. We were starting to feel guilty as the pile of waste meat on our plate started to grow.

With our hopes diminishing, we tried the flank steak next. Again, we were disappointed. The flank steak was tough and the flavor unpleasant. More for the waste pile.

Finally, the bacon wrapped filet mignon and chicken was served. At this point we were hungry, looking forward to the pleasant flavor and textures from our memory. Cutting into the filet revealed a grayish-black nugget of meat. Could it taste as bad as it looked? Our hunger pushed us on. I have had better tasting stew beef. The frozen bacon filet nuggets from Costco were better than this.

Our hopes now dashed, we surrendered. We summoned the manager and one of the owners appeared. When confronted with our pile of butchered meat, the owner defended the restaurant’s cooking style. When asked how she could consider grayish-black filet mignon to be properly cooked, she responded “we have people who like it this way and come back every weekend.” We were skeptical as we looked around at the many empty tables. My wife stated we would never be back as we paid our $50 check (after 50% coupon).