Greensboro Restaurant Guide

If you have big $$$ to spend on haute cuisine and happen to be passing through the Triad area, then this restaurant is for you. If easily blowing a $100 per person doesn't deter you, then read on. My husband and I went out on one of our last "date nights" for a while as we are expecting a baby any day. My husband heard from a co-worker that Marisol has the best food in the Triad (but not the cheapest though) so we decided to try it. We went there fully knowing we would be spending a pretty penny. When we first pulled into the parking lot I had a fair share of trepidation as the surrounding area is quite run down and the parking lot was empty. My husband assured me that we should give it a try but personally, I hate being the only people dining in a restaurant. Even though the restaurant was completely empty except for us, they chose to seat us at the littlest two person table they had even though they had wider two person tables and I am nine months pregnant! I was perplexed about this and kind of annoyed. We weren't dressed in upscale clothes so maybe they thought they should save the nicer tables for what they thought would be the "big spenders". After a few minutes of trying to make due, I finally asked my husband to request a bigger two person table for us. We had just got done ordering three (yes 3!) appetizers and they did graciously move us. My husband was starving and the apps did sound good but I really thought my husband had over ordered. Again, he reassured me that this place wouldn't be the kind of place to give you huge portions so we wouldn't be full after the apps. He was right. The calamari although good was $15 and extremely small. My husband got a special app that was not on the menu consisting of a asian inspired lobster tail for $30. And yes, it was tail, not tailS. Small for $30 even though it was tasty. We also got a Saffron Egg Drop Soup with lump crab meat. That was $12 a bowl but really excellent and worth the expense IMO. They graciously split the bowl into two portions and there was a nice size for each of us. So then we moved on to the entrees. I ordered a filet minion with shitake mushrooms on top and seasonal veggies and my husband ordered crispy duck with a type of cranberry compote over it served with the same seasonal veggies. My filet was $38 and my husbands was $35. Along with the meal they offered us bread which was served by the slice (no wasting here!)and I forgot to mention that before anything else they served us what they called a "palate teaser" of one homemade potato chip with a tiny piece of lamb on it and on the lamb was a tear drop sized dollop of what appeared to be seasoned mayonaise. It was good. We finished off our meal with a slew of desserts. Since my husband felt it was okay to order 3 apps I decided that we could also order 3 desserts and split them. I figured if they were anywhere near the quantity of the rest of the food, then three would be just about right...:) We had the lemon poundcake which was sliced, grilled, and served with cherries and cinnamon ice cream, a french inspired blueberry tart fresh from the oven, and a liquid center chocolate cake also freshly made to order. The blueberry and chocolate desserts each came with a scoop of vanilla ice cream which I believe is made in house. All the desserts were good. Not $10 each good, but good. The chocolate one was the least favorite as it was similar to a homemade brownie, nothing spectacular. The other two were more original and so I thought more "worth" it. Over all, the food was delicious and I would definately enjoy eating there again but the price a little hefty even for good tasting food. The one main distraction from the evening was the server. He was friendly for sure which I do appreciate, but I felt like he was intrusive in our evening. I could see him watching our every move and he came to ask how we liked everything so many times as if he was the chef himself! To remember the evening, my husband and I took photos of some of the food and each other and the waiter actually at one point came and looked over my shoulder to see the picture I was taking! I've lived in Miami, Boca Raton, Las Vegas, traveled to cities like NYC, Hong Kong, Chicago, ect and I've dined in my share of elegant restaurants. This restaurant had food that is definately upper crust but the atmosphere is nice but not near matching what you would expect with the cuisine or the price you pay for it, and the servers need to work on serving with subtle class and non intrusive attentiveness. Overall, huge $$$, great food, mediocre ambience and service.