Quote:
Originally Posted by PeterG
OK, I've never been to Sandy Point Restaurant, and it's pretty clear that at least one of their chefs, one of their waiters, and one of their posters is inept. (It's a bit like me and my sailboat at the start of last season.)
But maybe we should all ease up just a bit. The owners have probably made a huge financial and emotional commitment here. Forum readers now know they're not ready for prime time. We don't need to pile on. Let's just give them some space as they figure this out.
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I'm with you. Clearly, Sandy Point wasn't ready for prime time during its initial sort of opening -- we decided we wouldn't dare go with our visiting son & daughter-in-law at that time -- but more recent reviews and professional public behavior by the chef suggest that it may turn out to be the winner that all former SP fans have been so anxious for.
As for whether Jeez Louise is a shill, who knows and who cares, as long as more customers continue to post reviews. It's understandable that a struggling new restaurant starting up late for the season and getting slammed would try to pump things up a bit. Even popular established restaurants are not above this kind of thing; as among the earliest and strongest supporters Kevin's Café, we did find it off-putting on our last visit to see laminated signs on every table offering a discount to customers who posted favorable reviews on Yelp or TripAdvisor and brought in printouts.
My reading of the SP and Alton Community Facebooks is that the new chef, who likely didn't "get it" at first, is trying very hard and getting his act together. BTW, when I called to ask about the "green stuff" in the baked stuffed lobster that so horrified the extremely negative reviewer who showed up first, the chef said he's perfectly willing to leave it out. (It's controversial among both chefs and customers --
http://maine-lobster.com/lobster-tomalley-green-stuff -- my husband eats it, I won't.)
Irony that when our family declined to give in to our craving for baked stuffed lobster and went to Shibley's instead of SP last Sunday, the special waas baked stuffed lobster. It was pretty good -- seafood over intact lobster meat -- but the cracker crumb topping was godawful gloppy lumps and we wouldn't order it there again. We do hope to try SP later this summer.