Sweet Revenge - NYC

Search for a nice little bakery that was NOT Magnolia...let the games begin.

Sweet Revenge was bustling at 10pm on a Saturday night. We made our way through the late dinner crowd and found the 4 X 4 cupcake display that was supposed to be this places money maker.  We were confused as the case was nearly bare! There were 5 different options, and those options were looking kind of sad. We went with the "Dirty" – Valrhona Chocolate Cake with Dark Chocolate Truffle $3.50. The service was terrible as we were getting one cupcake, to - go, but as I mentioned it was busy.  Our cupcake was wrapped in  non traditional parchment paper, served in a to - go plastic cup and we were given a 'green' wooden fork.

The description promised a lot...we were sadly disappointed, our fork broke, the cupcake kept trying to leap out of the plastic cup and the cupcake itself? My taste buds were the only thing looking for revenge. It was dry and dense. 

Disappointed, we continued the NYC food crawl to....Magnolia.

Grade: C -, go with what works - that seems to be your dinner menu.

Pale Horse Restaurant - West Chester, PA

The new Spence Cafe, Pale Horse, was just that, pale.

The interior seemed decent, the chairs and decor appeared confused to me. It was like those Subaru's that were a hybrid mix of station wagon and pick up truck. Pick what you want to be and commit.

Moving on,  I had to request to have the TV blasting car commercials be turned off, muted or we were willing to move. An old black and white was put on, no sound. If they had modeled the place using old black and white films, this Casablaca, I could have appreciated it.

Drinks: Smoking Loon wine was one of the only ones we could order by the glass and even then it was overpriced.

Food: Bread basket came out with an olive tepenade. The bread needed to be toasted and the tepenade had no taste and no oil....olives and oil just go together, Olive oil and Olive Oyl? Clearly something was missing.
We opted to just put butter on our bread instead, the butter was cold and tore up the bread.
Moving on to appetizer. This was probably the best thing we ate all night. "Poached egg atop garlic herb sautéed wild mushrooms and grilled baguette"  It was really yummy despite using the terrible teared up bread! It should have been toasted (both times!) as mushrooms hold a lot of liquid and the bread became a hot soggy mess. There was nothing grilled about it.

Next, Salad....how can you manage to mess up a TBM? HOW? So I ordered the "Beefsteak tomato stacked with fresh mozzarella and fresh basil with a white balsamic drizzle"  It came out stacked on the saddest 3 lettuce leaves I have ever seen, I believe they were crying actual tears. The under ripe tomatoes left little to be desired. What was the strangest and most disappointing part was instead of the "white balsamic drizzle" there was cold marinara sauce dumped on top of it and NO basil to be found. When I explained to the waitress that it was not what I was expected and I asked about the balsamic she argued with me and told me thats how they make it and thats how it was stated in the menu. Thanks Barbie.

Moving on, she did replace it with a different salad that was alright.

We were going to order one of the great craft beers but there were no lights on the chalkboard and there are tables positioned directly in front of it. So to read it you have to hover over an awkward first date, no thanks.

Dinner, we opted to share the "Homemade potato gnocchi tossed with sautéed cherry tomatoes, capers, garlic and basil aioli" at 17 dollars it was midrange and the only option for a vegetarian. My Dad came to join us and as a fellow vegetarian I had him taste test. The gnocchi was so chewy it was like eating a piece of steak - I thought I gave up meat?!?!?! there were no cherry tomatoes - only diced underipe pieces.  Again, the basil was completely missing and it must have absconded with the garlic because that was AWOL too.

Men's bathroom was horrendous...looked like something that would be in a laundry mat, not a "fine dinning" establishment.

Spence Cafe you are missed....

Grade: D - Missing menu ingredients and poor customer service. Pale indeed, I am hopping off of this steed.