Gilbert's Cafe

Let me start by saying, I'm not a professional restaurant critic.  Not that I thought that anyone reading this would think I was, but, you know.  I've also never read a restaurant review, not a professional one.  I've read random reviews of other diners for restaurants I've never tried before, but that's about as far as I've gotten.

So, Gilbert's Cafe.  I was meeting a girlfriend of mine after last Monday and I asked her what she had a taste for.  She suggested Mediterranean, so I did a Google search and Gilbert's came up.  Honestly, I didn't read any of the reviews.  I saw they won something from City Search and they were in the right area, so we decided to check out Gilbert's.

Gilbert's is quaint and very unassuming.  I must say that for a Monday night, it was packed, but the place is also small, so it was hard to tell if it was really busy or if space was just really limited.  When we walked in we were greeted by a gentleman who told us someone would be with us shortly.  I noticed that there was only one table of four available and I couldn't tell if anyone was waiting ahead of us because the bar was full and there was a waiting list on the hostess stand in full view, but every name on it was crossed out.  Very shortly thereafter, another man came over and told me there was a 15 minute wait because the one four top that was free, was being reserved for a reservation.  I found that to be interesting because I prefer making reservations.  As a matter of fact, I spend a lot of time on Open Table and make reservations every chance I get.  I say that to say, they're not on Open Table and there was nothing about reservations on their website, which I did spend a lot of time reviewing, even though I didn't read the reviews.

I was immediately suspicious when he mentioned reservations.  I was more suspicious a few seconds later when a female server walked over and he mentioned to her that there were reservations for the only open table and she said, oh yeah that's right.  Hmm...  So, we waited.  More people came in after us, groups of ones and twos, but alas, none of them were the ones who held the reservation for the one open table.  While we waited there was a couple ahead of us who were seated, not at the reserved table.  20 minutes later, a table came available for us and we sat down.  Still the four top remained open.  I noticed that more groups of twos came in after us and either waited for an open table or sat at one of the tables that were available.  The restaurant amazingly cleared out after we sat down, and the four top remained open.

Eventually the four top was sat to a group of four, which confirmed my suspicions that there was never any reservation, but instead they were holding the table for a group larger than two.  I can understand it, but I don't appreciate it.  There were plenty of tables available after we sat and if they'd sat anyone at the four top, very few of us would have had to wait for a table and those of us who did have to wait, wouldn't have had to wait 20 minutes.

So, for the food.  I looked at the menu online and was pretty sure of what I wanted, although several things looked good to me.  I ordered the Almond Crusted tilapia.  My friend ordered the Lamb Stew, which was the other thing I was interested in.

The tilapia was served with risotto and spinach.  The spinach was sitting on a bed of spinach, which rested on top of the creamy risotto.  I'm a big fan of risotto and I loved it.  I wasn't blown away by the spinach or the tilapia, but they were both good.  The spinach was somewhere between raw and overcooked.  It was a little weird, but I really like spinach and it was definitely tolerable.  The tilapia was tilapia.  It was pretty good, but nothing to write home about.

My friend didn't care much for her lamb stew.  I didn't taste it and couldn't really comment on it, but it looked delicious.  She left plenty on the plate and didn't want to take any of it home, although she mentioned how hungry she was while we were waiting.  I didn't think that was a very good sign.

Would I ever go back, maybe for one of their weekend brunches they brag about, but only with a three more people, that way we're guaranteed whatever four top is available.