Birthday dinners have to be special, especially when hitting a decade mark. This past December 2011, I celebrated just such a birthday. My gentleman and I want to enjoy a special dinner. I am rather fond of steak, authentic Italian, and my absolute favorite, seafood.
In 2011 my birthday was on a Monday. Normally this would not matter… uUntil we arrived in Ebensburg and headed for Ebensburg’s renown Amici’s Italian restaurant only find out that the one day per week they are closed is Monday! We thought we were fortunate to be walking distance to the Camelot restaurant and Castle Pub which I had heard about from a few locals. Confident the restaurant-bar would hold to its hype, we walked in, expecting a conventional restaurant.
Three steps into the establishment we were greeted not by a professional staff, but several pool tables. It takes couple minutes to navigate our way to what appears to be the dining area. The bar is highly prominent with about a dozen folks drinking and smoking-something I had not seen indoors for years after living with NYC’s strict restaurant smoking regulations. The dining area is so filled with smoke, you can barely see. With no one to greet us, we find a booth with wood carvings on it and a wood shield featuring exceptionally basic heraldry. It’s astonishingly unremarkable given the hype we had heard. As we wait to be noticed by the waitress, we note how minimal the “medieval” décor really is. The waitress, who also turns out to be the bartender, is dressed in a t-shirt and mini skirt! This again is not what we expect for a medieval themed establishment.
It takes about 20 minutes to be noticed by the waitress . She finds some menus and takes our order. Ten minutes later, she comes back to me and tells me they don’t have what I ordered and offers a substitution for the type of meat-without telling me that she was substituting the entire entree -including vegetables I do not like and did not want. I wanted the sides offered in my original choice.
It is only an additional 20 minutes later when the food is served and I receive nothing I ordered originally that I realize her omission. Feeling obligated, I try to eat it anyway-but the meat is grisly and tough and the vegetables greatly to my disliking. To make this even worse, loud music is playing and, after serving us, the waitress bartender essentially forgets about us.
It was an unforgettable experience of a themed restaurant being the opposite of its hype. Go to Camelot/Castle Pub for a beer; but forget about dinner there!