Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Family dining review: Rose Tattoo Grille in Richardson
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Exterior of Rose Tattoo Grille in Richardson's The Shire
RICHARDSON — Benjamin fell asleep again right as dinner time rolled around, so we opted to leave him sleeping at Lala’s house while we ate dinner. I have been wanting to go the Rose Tattoo Grille and Wine restaurant for some time. I’ve been there a couple of times with my business partner and her husband, and one of those nights happened to be a Monday where we learned they have 1/2 price bottled wine. In the past, we’d think of it and say, Let's wait til it's a Monday. Well, enough time passed that I won’t be having any alcohol at this restaurant for childsplate since I’m not pregnified. But, I did remember for Ogre and we headed here tonight.
The place was wide open when we arrived and we picked a table by the wall where Mina could admire and ask and ask and ask about the clocks overhead. She is very inquisitive these days.
We perused the menu. Mina brought her somewhat annoying Vtech computer in to play with while we set up dinner. I had her turn it way down even though, quite frankly, the restaurant was almost completely empty.
We ordered dinner and the cheese plate came out pretty quickly. Mina was in a super adventurous mood today and opted to try EVERYTHING! Can you believe it. Now, she did not like most of it, but the fact that she tried is enough to impress her parents!
We ordered mussels and somewhat assumed she would not like them, but told her the only way she would be allowed to play with mussel shells would be to eat one. So she did…and she liked them! She did not like the four-cheese flatbread we ordered specifically with her in mind, but she ate so many mussels that we let her off the hook on eating those.
We debated ordering more small plates, but decided against it.
The owner came over to check on us and clear some plates and we had a very nice conversation with him about dining with kids, our kids' expensive taste, and when he cleared Mina’s plate, he offered to wash off the mussels for her to take home.
After he’d been gone awhile, Mina asked about her mussels, I’d honestly forgot about them and assumed he had too amidst our long conversation, but no, about 10 minutes later, he came out with the cleanest, shiniest mussel shells I’ve ever seen nicely packaged up for her!
We also ordered dessert and found that to be excellent, so we all left happy.
The Food
Cheese plate at Rose Tattoo Grille in Richardson
They had some tapas style “small plates,” some flat breads, and a few entrees. We ordered mussels, prepared in saffron tomato broth. There was a little bit of overwhelming something in my opinion (basil?) but overall a pretty good dish. The mussels themselves were very good, not chewy, seemed fresh. Ogre thought these were really good, and he is very picky about mussels.
We ordered the cheese plate with brie, pepper crusted goat cheese, and a bleu cheese served with apples, crackers, pistachios, and olives. Very good but unsure if worth the 16 bucks we paid for it.
The flatbreads were also very good. We ordered the goat cheese and tomatoes flatbread as well as the four-cheese flatbread. Both had a nice, crisp thin crust. I liked the goat cheese flatbread more than the cheese and I think Ogre thought oppositely as he loved the truffle oil drizzled atop the four cheese flatbread.
The creme brulee we had for dessert was excellent. The texture was perfect and it was nicely crusted with sugar without melting the creme. It is made with a Tahitian vanilla bean and was a nice size for sharing.
The service
There was one server for the whole restaurant. Luckily, there were only two other tables. The owner was helping out in all capacities. Even with the staff stretched thin, we did not feel overlooked and they were very attentive. Food came out very reasonably spaced.
The kids
It’s probably not meant to be kid friendly, but the guy who owns the joint was very kid friendly to us. They don’t have a kids' menu or kids' activities and I’m assuming most of their clientele is not expecting to see kids in the restaurant, but if you bring the kids, I don’t think the ownership will be huffy!
I enjoy this place, I’d probably enjoy it more if I weren’t pregnant, but that’s how the dice rolled. I hope this place stays open, it’s great for a nearby, good quality bite… now if they could perk up their wine menu…
The total $74 (with 1 bottle of wine)
Pegasus News content partner - Phipps Feeding Fiasco
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Comments
CitizenKane Anonymous
This is one of the most annoying reviews I have ever read.
The author uses I, We, Me, Us in practically every sentence.
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Travis Bush Verified
How about writing your own reviews and stop with the QQ about someone else's efforts?
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
jtmbls Anonymous
Travis – I find your comment on the critique of the review lacking imagination and rather unsubstantial. Try to do better please.
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Travis Bush Verified
SHUT IT!
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
TLS Anonymous
It is not necessary for Citizen Kane to have to write a restaurant review before he can critique one! If the author is going to publicize her work she should be open to criticism. I complained about this woman's last restaurant review and this one isn't any better.
Travis: I enjoyed your Wildflower review and posted as such. I myself have never written a festival review so I guess my approval isn't acceptable to you?
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Travis Bush Verified
TLS..thanks for enjoying my review. I'm just giving CitizenKane some hell. In the case of this review, I found it to be simple and that it probably appeals to regular old people who aren't looking for food snobbery. Just my two cents.
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
TLS Anonymous
Food snobbery aside, I think the problem is that when a restaurant review is published on a reputable website the reader expects the reviewer to have a modicum of food knowledge and journalistic abilities. From what I have read, the reviews from Phipps should be posts on the restaurant, not the featured review. It's not fair to the restaurant.
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
luniz Anonymous
It's not a "featured review". It's a content partner who blogs about eating out with their kid. Anybody expecting the review to have a "modicum of food knowledge and journalistic abilities" is quickly disabused, from then on it's up to you to decide whether to read the review or not.
Welcome to the "new media".
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Travis Bush Verified
AFAIK, anyone who wants to submit a restaurant review can do so whenever they like, regardless of what level of journalistic acumen or "modicum" of food knowledge they might have.
There is no "featured review" that I know of. As well, all the articles get shuffled to the top for a while, before new articles are put into the mix. That goes for content partners as well as those of us who submit articles and consider ourselves members of the Peg community. That last word being key.
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Teresa Gubbins Staff
love all of these comments above (travis & jtmbls: hilarious), but i think TLS is correct that to call the Phipps' reports straight-out "restaurant reviews" is misleading.
the reason we like the Phipps' reports is because they approach restaurants from a kid-friendly point of view, and that is unusual among food/dining blogs.
Pegasus News publisher and founder Mike O has suggested "Family dining review" as a new headline to reflect the content more accurately. perhaps we'll get the Town Crier to make that proclamation
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Travis Bush Verified
Pegasus News publisher and founder Mike O has twittered from some speak easy in NYC..
fixed it for you..:D
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Mike Orren Staff
Actually, Travis, I'm back from my voyages...
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
CitizenKane Anonymous
Now I know why I hate kid-friendly restaurant formats.
PS. Rest well Norman.....
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
alexander troup Verified
Travis is up to snuff with stuff for Mike and I like this place it is charmmmming....but the Speak Easy thing is comming soon to your local tobacco bin and saloon.....until then...A/T,...ROSE TATTOO...
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
jtmbls Anonymous
"reputable website"
Where ?? :b
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Travis Bush Verified
I know! They let anybody and their primate post around here..sheesh!
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Travis Bush Verified
Uh..Family dining review? Why fix something that isn't broken? People can read a restaurant review for what it is worth and call it good. I expect to see some hammering of "Restaurant Reviews" from here on out. I want quantifiable modicums of restaurant and journalistic integrity..Get right on that will you, TGubb?
I mean if cho wrote about getting drunk and having a hamburger at Lee Harveys and submitted it as an article, would it be a Drunken Minority Review or would it be a Restaurant Review? Or when JRice gets off work and goes for a snack after a long night of theater...is is a Restaurant Review, or a Snippy Thespian Review?
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
TLS Anonymous
Travis: You seem to be fascinated by my use of the word "modicum". Did I just teach you a new word?
My point is this...a restaurant review, not a post or an opinion, is held by a higher standard. I have googled restaurants and a Pegasus News link on that restaurant has been front and center. Reviews by TG and reviews by Phipps are not in the same league but they are on the same website. Regular readers can discern the two but will the guy who googles a restaurant know? Again, not fair to the restaurant.
Does Pegasus want to be a site where one can read a respectable review or is it a free for all where anyone can post anything? I don't know...I don't own Pegasus. I'm just asking.
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
jtmbls Anonymous
In summation: Standards? Who needs standards?
As one of the guilty in taking advantage of the free-for-all general tone of the site, some structure is necessary and appreciated. There are only so many poorly constructed sentences a person can read before they just move on to something more substantial.
I call dibs on the Rare Fruits and Rainforest Cocktails section!
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Travis Bush Verified
TLS..one doubts you could teach me any new words...I just find the term terribly subjective and as I am growing into..it has been said that there is room for everyone on Peg News.. That seems to encompass differing points of view. Hard to deal with sometimes, definitely.
Why is it unfair for a restaurant to get a review from an ordinary person? Or a family? So what if it is the first thing that shows up on a search engine? Do it right and there's no complaint from the customer. Do they want positive feedback or not?
There is nothing unfair about having ordinary people REVIEW an eating establishment. To say otherwise is indicative of the same snobbery that I mentioned in one of my earlier posts.
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Mike Orren Staff
This isn't a matter of our saying that the Phipps reviews are less valid than others-- to the contrary. They are very specialized, though, and we get a lot of compliments for them from folks looking for info on taking kids out to eat.
That said, I can understand how someone looking for a traditional review would be disappointed. Hence, the distinction.
And this isn't a harbinger of endless segmenting. But even on Grace's website -- with which we've chosen to partner because we felt the work valuable to a segment of our audience -- it is clear that these are reviews written from the POV of how a restaurant works for the kids, first and foremost. That's why the URL is http://www.childsplate.com/.
We're hopeful that the new designation will bring more interested parents, while helping readers like CitizenKane stick to the broader, more traditional reviews.
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Travis Bush Verified
New feature is great!
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Jason Rice Verified
I vote Yes and Yes
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Pavel Lishin Verified
I find this review, and the comments below it, shallow and pedantic.
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
alexander troup Verified
Well Pavel.....how could you.....and than again this is Wendsday.....the day we forget and tell the truth...yes it is a shallow article,while it was shallow day on Tuesday....agree,...with me...A/T, Another day at the office and no date with Anjie Jolie...
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
luniz Anonymous
Travis it's "unfair" because people that don't really know or care about quality of food write "reviews" that get picked up by Pegasus, promoted as "restaurant reviews", and badmouth quality restaurants because they didn't take an entree off the bill because a hair was found on the plate...after all the food was eaten. Say some relatively nice restaurant has a couple of really good reviews, but they get bumped down to where they don't get seen by 10 people complaining about the prices, only 2 of whom have ever eaten there.
That said, there really isn't anything you can do about it. Can't put the yelp back in the bag, as it were.
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
alexander troup Verified
Well Travis......that is what happend when you do too many burger kings .....put the burger back in the king.....A/T, Bubbas food works...and shallow bull ships...
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Michael Anderson Verified
So, who are the experts who "know" about "quality" food and restaurants in today's inter-web-tastitic world?
The folks over at DallasFood.org seem to know at least as much as the professional restaurant critics in town (and some of them are more than happy to let everyone in cyberspaceland know it, too). It seems to me that the barriers to entry for the so-called amateurs who don't get paid but write about what they love be it food or something else have been flung wide open (didn't Mike O. blog about something like this a while back?), and it's up to us as readers to separate out what we consider wheat from chaff.
I don't think it takes too long for the average reader to figure out who's voice they want to listen to and who's they'll ignore, and I don't think we need PegNews to make the decision for us.
That's why I still vote that this all be settled Thunderdome-style, with Mel Gibson refereeing or joining in on the fun as he sees fit.
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
TLS Anonymous
I hear what you are saying Michael Anderson.
This all started when Citizen Kane said the review was annoying and Travis was none too pleased by that comment. Should have left it at that I guess.
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Travis Bush Verified
Uh...if the "Family dining review" is really a new feature it will stand side by side with the "Restaurant review" for all to see in the Dining rotation. I fail to see the difference when it comes to visibility and "fairness". Let's also make it clear the distinction between a review that is posted as an article and simply a post in response to a particular review. You can call it something else, but at the end of the day, it is still a critical window into a restaurant..regardless of whether or not you approve of the author's delivery.
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
jtmbls Anonymous
Oh by all means TLS!! Anytime you see Travis step out of line, you go ahead and give him the what for!! We have Midol if he needs it.
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Travis Bush Verified
SHUT IT!
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
TLS Anonymous
And.....scene.
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
alexander troup Verified
I was a food Historian until some folks threw out my books and files last year...I could go back to the 1920's, In Dallas while Greek food has been a long time staple ,so has Mexcian food and then Chinese, Steak Houses and BBQ Joints go back to the 1890s, and hamburgers are fromthe 1920s, while fine dinning is in decades and stages.....overall article here is fun food, I note...keep it up, Romance in the ketchen....A/T,..OVER 35 PLEASE...
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
DC Anonymous
I would totally write something for some internetz thing if I wasn't...yeah, ok who cares? Look for a piece this week. In the meantime, here's some internet bait:
"your an idiot"
"I wish I could apply an AT filter"
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Jason Rice Verified
Cesar Chavez!
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Travis Bush Verified
Yeah DC could write a piece if she didn't care there was a difference between "who cares" and "high praise for your food snobbery"..Smooches!
5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
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