THE MALABAR INN--
Very Disappointing!

Sue had never been to this acclaimed eating establishment so we decided to make that our stop for celebrating her birthday dinner in late August.

We will not make that mistake again.

It's 1850s, historical ambiance is marvelously restored into two modest sized dining rooms with an "L" shaped perimeter deck for outside dining under the not so adequate cover of table umbrellas.

Sue ordered a small salad ($5) with an entree of pasta in an Alfredo sauce and shrimp (about $20).  It was advertised with a bacon garnish which she asked to be withheld.  Our classy waiter assured her that would be done.

Seemingly in keeping with my hypothesis that "Mediocrity is today's standard of excellence,"  her meal with its not so generous (size or quantity of shrimp), arrived with a liberal garnishment of bacon.

Back it went for another try.

Meanwhile my beef filet ($27) was ordered, sans salad, cooked medium.  A warm, pink center, the waiter assured me.  It arrived as a very generous cut of meat but had absolutely no evidence of pink--anywhere.  Ditto for the juice like that of a steak cooked correctly.

It was a tender cut of meat but the flavor went the same place the cook hid the pink.

Naturally, waiting for her corrected meal left us eating in shifts, hardly conducive to our celebratory mood.  I chose not to send my steak back, having already lost any confidence my second steak would arrive any better than the first one.

We passed when the waiter did the obligatory advertisement for their dessert.  We already had touched the stove twice with both her meal and mine and didn't want to make that mistake a third time.