Restaurant Review – The Veranda

If your looking for old school formal elegance with a touch of snobbery, this place is for you! I don’t know if we weren’t dressed up enough or if it was pulling up to the valet parking with our 2014 Chevy Volt, or what, but we never felt like we were wanted there! When we went inside there was some confusion over our reservation, which was at 5pm for 2. After a “who’s on first” conversation which lasted about 5 minutes we were shown to our table. About 20 minutes later the hostess came over and asked if we were another Olson with reservations at 6pm. We said no we were the Olsons at 5pm. She turned and walked away without saying anything.

The place only had one other couple in it at the time. A waiter goes up to the other table and tells them the specials. I hear Prime Rib as one of the specials. When the same waiter comes to our table to tell us the specials, he doesn’t mention the Prime Rib. I ask him is that it for specials. He says yes and I say what about the Prime Rib? He says, oh yes, and we have prime rib too. Interesting. Why wouldn’t I be offered the prime rib. Did I look like it would be too expensive for me to order, so why bother telling me, or what? I was miffed! I ordered the prime rib.

I also ordered my favorite “going out to a nice place” drink, which is a dry, Southern Comfort Manhattan on the rocks with an olive. It took a while to get this drink and when it was put down in front of me it didn’t look like anything I’ve ever seen before! I’ve been ordering these for over 30 years and they all looked the same up until this one! If you don’t have Southern Comfort, just say so. I didn’t want to make any waves, so I didn’t complain and winced every time I took a sip! It was awful. When my prime rib came I played it safe and ordered a glass of red wine.

I think we were pretty much ignored the whole time we were there. After a while another waiter was there and there were more tables. That waiter and his tables were having a great back and forth conversation and lots of fun. Not us! Where is our waiter? Anyway, the food was pretty good, thank god! When we were finished with our dinner I mentioned that my wife and I were here celebrating our 43rd wedding anniversary (dropping a hint to the water) and would like to have dessert. We heard the dessert specials and ordered dessert. When the dessert arrived, the waiter puts it down between us and while he says “happy anniversary” he puts a candle in it and lights it and walks away. That’s it! We got a candle! After spending $200, that’s it!

The final insult came when we went outside to get our car the valet yells across the parking lot in front of other people, “it was the Bentley, right?”. I smiled at first, but then realized he was being sarcastic with a smirk on his face. We left and we will never go back. But it does have good food. The prime rib was excellent! We wife’s scallops were great. Click here to go to their website.