Stop Looking at Me!

We tried another new restaurant tonight. This time around it was Chloe Élan in Ada. The initial experience was not the greatest. The location is in a strip mall near Amway. The first room was a small bar area populated only by staff. We were than led to one of two main floor dining rooms. It threw me a bit that the room was completely empty since the other room appeared to be reasonably busy. The decor was very "modern" for lack of a better term. It was not offensive or anything, it just felt like you could have dropped the room into any of a dozen restaurants and it would have fit in.

We were waiting for another couple to arrive so we tried to order the cheese plate. Unfortunately, had been cleaned out by an Amway party the previous day. This gave me an excuse to order the tuna tartare. Melissa is not a huge fan of seafood so it was a hard sell. However, she gave it a try and enjoyed it as much as I did. It was about this time we realized why the other couple was a half our late. They had been lead to the other, extremely crowded, dining room. The staff never made the connection. The main courses were good if not Earth shattering. The drinks were similar, a good variety but nothing so amazing that I have to go back for the food or the experience.

In the end the only thing memorable about the experience was the weakness of the service. The place was not that big with only two main rooms on the main floor and no one at all downstairs. There was no reason for one room to be extremely crowded and another to be empty. There was also no reason for them not to connect two couples both waiting for another couple who arrived within ten minutes of each other. This is probably a fine place to eat if you're in the area but there is no reason to make a special trip.