Clinton Street Baking Company

I had great hopes for this place. From the outside, it looks like a homey, unpretentious place. The decor is lovely. Our table was all set and waiting for us when we came in, and our waitress was incredibly nice. We gave her 5 credit cards to swipe and she didn't even skip a beat! With all this said, I want to say nice things about Clinton Street Baking Company, but...the food simply was just not good enough. Everything was competent, but nothing was worth talking about. It was one of those dining experiences where the food is decent, but not exciting in any way, and you kind of just chew and swallow without much thought to the flavor, trying to finish everything as quickly as possible, so you can move on to the rest of your evening. My eyes lit up when I saw Shephard's Pie on the menu. I was expecting the typical Shephard's Pie that I know and love - ground beef, mashed potatoes, loose corn and some other vegetables all thrown together to produce a comforting brick of cholesterol. But what i got instead was a crappy version closer to chicken pot pie. The chunks of beef were too tough and hard to chew. The roasted vegetables were way too salty. The puff pastry was too greasy.

I'm not alone in thinking that my meal was below par. Some comments from my fellow diners:

Ursy - "the chicken was a bit dry."
Jordan - "the burger is boring and uninspired."
Molly - "the fish tacos gave me a bit of a tummy ache."

If the entrees were around $10 each, I might be a little more forgiving, but since each place was closer to $20, there's no excuse for such mediocrity.