We took friends from out of town to Hush in Laguna Beach many months ago, just for a drink. They loved the bar, which is sleek and interesting. The bar is quiet but not dull, and the bartenders that night were funny as we watched a baseball game on television. Plus, the colored backdrop turns colors, from green to red and so forth. It was a cool experience, and they didn’t blink an eye when Nicki made them invent a new rum punch for her right on the spot.
This couple was unhappy when we left to dine at Sapphire down the street, although at the time Sapphire was the hottest place with a lot of buzz. Things were even worse when we got there and there was a huge wait so they sent us to the gift shop, even though it really was more of a deli. Our friends were very unhappy, especially after the wait grew to close to an hour. (They tried to blame us for coming too early, but even then, they were late.)
In the end, Sapphire did right by us. They paid our bar bill, gave us a fantastic table with a view of the kitchen, fussed over us and served amazing food, including wonderful potato chips. We’ve been back several times and the food never disappoints.
But our friends remained annoyed that we did not eat at Hush.
So, we decided to take them there recently during a visit back to Orange County. We arrived early for our 7:30 reservation and grabbed seats at the bar. This time, however, the bar remained green, and the service was unpleasant.
Nicki asked for a specific citrus vodka, straight up, shaken with lemon juice and the tiniest bit of bar sugar.
“You mean a lemon drop without the sugar on the rim,” the bartender asked in kind of a mean way.
We asked what a certain ingredient was on the bar drink list, and we were ignored. Then we watched the woman bartender upend a bottle of red and shake it, hard, so that the remnants emptied into a one-glass-sized carafe headed for a table.
Imagine the sediment that lucky person had in store!
We had no desire to have more than a round, unlike last time, when we found it difficult to part. Instead, we asked to be seated and were taken to a table crowded in between two other tables and an open door. It was freezing, and within a few moments, waiters and bus boys had bumped into our chair three times.
The waiter was very kind to move us to a great booth in back, and we were happy once more. And the menu was OK. Not thrilling, kind of pricey ($45 for a shell steak?) but we ordered a bottle each of red and white and a few snacks to share, oysters (which were no bigger than a dime and rather dried out) and a salami and cheese plate.
The wine was fine, the room fine, the waiter was on and off her game, rushing us a bit but being overall quite pleasant. But when we finally ordered and received our main dishes, we were beside ourselves.
The previously mentioned $45 steak came with a potato croquette that looked like a T.G.I.F. fried cheese stick, but was soggy and limp and bland. The fava bean pasta was so dried out and inedible that it was sent back, not to be replaced. The ahi was served with a dusty coating and sliced too thick to be really appetizing. All we could do was drink another bottle of wine and laugh about it.
Until we saw the bill. Which, well, it was about $700 that we’ll never see again.
Kind of like Hush will never see us again.
But we were able to tell our friends, who gave us such a hard time last summer, “We told you so!”
Next time, perhaps, they will pay more attention to our restaurant picks.
3 responses so far ↓
Rachel // May 28, 2008 at 10:41 pm |
Oh my goodness. I’d have had a hard time laughing it off. That sounds like an absolutely terrible meal.
ksin // May 28, 2008 at 11:00 pm |
It sounds awful and I will not go there, but here’s a question. Do you know why it’s called Hush? Because that seems odd for a restaurant. Big fans of Goodnight Moon, perhaps?
nicki // May 31, 2008 at 3:25 pm |
They call it Hush because that is the word the “chef” says when he tiptoes back in the kitchen after a rousing negotiation session with the seagulls guarding the ingredients he keeps stored in the dumpster behind Chuck E Cheese.
Never, never, never again will we try to make our own suggestion for, or question your choice of restaurant – except perhaps if you want to eat at the Cannery again. Although they did serve a good colon cleansing Bloody Mary, all that extra sauce and Disney tunes on the steel drum are what linger in my mind.
The true problem is that there is no match for your kitchen! Maybe next visit we should just hire a prep cook and a dishwasher so we know the food and ambiance will be divine, and the experience illuminating in a positive way!