Rum Runners: Run Away
Posted in Personal Miscellany
on July 24th, 2010 by
Stephen DeGrace
Topics:
Reviews,
Food and Restaurants
Tonight we went to Rum Runners restaurant in Charlottetown, PEI to celebrate my step-brother's graduation from college. A lot of family were there and it was a very happy event. Regrettably, the restaurant itself was not one of the highlights of the evening. Rum Runners is a terrible restaurant and I would never recommend it to anyone.
The evening started out well enough. The party as a whole was maybe 20-25 people, and we had a reservation. Mathieu and I got there a few minutes after 6 pm, and already most people were there. The server, who was pretty nice, took our drink orders and we didn't have to wait too long for them, although Matt was a bit put out they didn't have root beer. However, the atmosphere was good and the menu looked really interesting, if a touch on the expensive side. There were a lot of things I wanted to try.
It was probably around 6:15 that we put in our orders. Overall I have to say the service was not bad - the young guy who served us was very good about checking with the kitchen for my egg allergy, for example, and was friendly. I ordered the seafood chowder and a side of sweet potato fries (originally this was to be onion rings, but their batter has eggs, meaning these are probably really good onions rings if you're not allergic). The seafood chowder was described as containing haddock (I think, some kind of white fish anyway), salmon, scallops, and shrimp, and garnished with mussels and PEI lobster. The cost was about $11 dollars, for which I expect kick-ass chowder, which I did fully expect. Mathieu ordered the chicken quesadilla.
Then the waiting started. It was at least an hour before I saw my entrée. This was par for the course for most people there, although bizarrely, our second table, who ordered well after we did, received their food well earlier (although still not early - maybe 40 minutes. They were mostly finishing when we got our food). They were at it long enough that they could have been out in the harbour, personally catching my seafood. Granted we were a fairly large party, but there were not a lot of other people in the restaurant, so they weren't exactly contending with big crowds. Come to think of it, maybe there's a reason for that.
When the food finally came, it was a disappointment. My "mussel and lobster garnish" consisted of a piddly three mussels, two of which were empty shells, and a tiny shred of lobster claw. The soup contained haddock and salmon as promised, but not a single shrimp, and unless they threw in some scallops which were too microscopic for me to catch, not a single scallop, either. For me this was a big disappointment, because scallops are my favourite seafood and the principal reason why I order something like the chowder - although I do like the fish, too. To top it off, the potatoes were undercooked and crunchy, and the portion itself was not overly large.
So my dinner was falsely advertised, over-priced, inordinately late, and incompetently prepared. I was by no means the only person in our party who was disappointed with their food. Almost everyone either felt their food was barely adequate, or were actively disappointed. My mother, who is not a pushy or demanding person by any means, said that the only reason why she didn't complain and refuse to pay for her substandard entrée and burned fries was not to make a scene at a special occasion. My brother, who had the blackened salmon, found it too salty, and not particularly spicy. Certainly no one felt their dinner was worth the wait, or the price.
Funny enough, the one exception was Mathieu. While he was very put out by the epic wait for his food, the quesadilla, when it finally came, was quite good. It was loaded with chicken and vegetables and quite tasty. So, if you lowball the size of our group at 20 people, and ignore the wait, Mathieu's meal gives Rum Runners a 5% success rate. If you like those odds, definitely check out Rum Runners.
Don't let the decor and the slick menus fool you. Rum Runners is awful. It is a complete waste of your time and money. I certainly won't be back.
Comments:
There are 2 comments on this item.
On November 26th, 2011
Stephen DeGrace
wrote:
I waited. It was a family thing, I was not going to ruin it by complaining. None of us were satisfied with our food or service, but none of us wanted to take away from the occasion.
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On November 18th, 2011 Paul wrote:
Really?
I've been to this place many time and always had great food, service and a good time!
I must admit that when we've gone with a large party they have been slower, but I always take that as a good thing - It's not a Macd's so at least you know they are cooking to order.
Oh well I guess different strokes for different folks.
I'm curious did anyone complain at the time? Or did you wait to do it online?
Paul