Blue Grill House Wine - Bethlehem

The atmosphere is nice, romantic. The service is good, although not better than I’ve had at many resturants around the valley. The food leaves something to be desired. The prices make the dissapointment in the food unforgivable. To be fair, I am a vegetarian reviwing an upscale steakhouse. However, when I pay $25 for a vegetable torte, I expect something tasty. What I got was boiled vegetables. They could have at least thrown some salt on it. The complementry bread was for the most part cold, and a few pieces were stale, and all together unexceptional. Only the starving would eat it. Which is not too unlikely, given we had to wait 15 minutes past our reservation time to be seated, and it was overall lesurely service. The bread was also severed with a side plate containing a huge slab of butter, which was so completely chillled it crumbled rather than cut or spread. I’m not sure why they even bothered brining it out. For an appetizer we ordered spinach artichoke dip, which was unexceptional. Even more dissapointing was that when the waiter packaged this to go for us, and we opened it later at home, the flatbread was all thrown right on top of the dip and completely soggy and gross. I would have rather they not even have given it to us take out. All side items had to be ordered seperately from entrees, which suprised me since the cheapest entree on the menu was $25. Maybe this is normal for fine dining and I just don’t know it. I ordered a side of roasted red potatoes, which was the best thing I had there although they were nothing more that cubed and cooked and lightly brushed with oil and sprinkled with salt. I was wishing for some katchup to make them more exciting. My boyfriend ordered a scallops dish, and he did say it was high quality seafood and perfectly cooked. He also said it was drearly bland and stole the lemon wedge out of my ice tea to kick up the flavor. It was served in a giant puttle of orange sauce, but the sauce had no flavor. I had a simliarly brightly colored sauce drizzled on my plate, which had no flavor at all, despite repeated spoonfulls tasted. For dessert we had the Creme Brule. I’ve had this dish a few times, and I’m generaly okay with it. However I wouldn’t eat what was served. It was ice cold on the bottom and blackened-burnt on the top. I realize it’s suppose to have burnt sugar top, but it’s not suppose to taste like ash. Avoid. So if you want a piece of meat that is high quality and perfectly cooked with no seasoning, come here. If you want exciting flavors, go elsewhere. Bottom line: I would have been happier if I had paid $25 for a bean burrito from taco bell.