mlhchicago | Apr. 30, 2012

I have been meaning to go to this restaurant since it opened. Finally decided to go for my parent's 35th wedding anniversary. We were a party of 5.

They sat us at a table that was clearly in a walkway between the main dining room and a side room.

Sundays they do a family style menu. The choices sounded decent, not what i would have normally ordered, the price was reasonable so we did that and ordered 1 dozen oysters.

They gave us bread with a seasalt butter. The bread was great. The butter didn't taste like it was salted at all. A sign of things to come. The oysters came out and were fantastic, can't really credit them with that though.

Had a scallop dish that was cold like a salad in a creamy sauce. the scallops were undercooked and the sauce didn't taste like anything at all. Beet salad was good thanks to fresh beets and whatever cheese they had with it. the dressing, if there was any, didn't have any flavor.

Next came an undercooked monkfish dish that had 0 flavor. Also a pork shoulder dish. The sauce again had no flavor. I had 3 bites of. 2 were all fat and i actually spit them out. No one in my family could eat it. We left the full dish and half the dish of monkfish.

Came with a side of pilaf which was ok and asparagus that might have been the most flavorful thing we ate all night, and it was still over cooked.

The dessert was actually good I was told, but was so turned off I didn't even touch it.

At the end of the meal i took the check and went to speak to the manager in private. I wanted to talk to him away from the table to try to not bring anything else bad to the meal for my parents. Shocked. The manager basically told me it was my fault because I didn't complain in front of everyone when he came by the table. I told him I was disappointed with the table and how all night my mother was being bumped by servers trying to squeeze behind her and how bland all of the food was. And then he told me that Balsan was the best restaurant in the city. I replied by saying I've been to many of the best restaurants in the city and given my experience here Balsan didn't even come close. He backpeddaled saying that it was not their normal menu, to which I responded that if I had known that I would not have come. He then began a negotiation asking me what I expected him to do. I said I'd like to be compensated for my disappointment because him simply giving me his card for my next visit was not enough since i was likely not going to return. They comped us one bottle of wine, about $50.

After all was done I have to say that I agree with the group of people that got up and left saying that the manager was an a-hole. I will definitely not be returning. And if you are planning on going, I HIGHLY recommend going on any other night than Sunday.

Ordered pizza when I got home, sadly that was the most flavorful thing I ate all night.