The View

well… they handled my big family with charm! I was quite impressed.
Just to note, The View is a breathtaking place, beautiful restaurant and situated with the most amazing view (get it? The View?) overlooking Birmingham– which is one of my favorite cities. The restaurant’s interior has some nice timeless decorating– lots of Mahogany (i think? I am not super up on my woods), dark carpets, metal, bannisters, plants, open kitchen, big bar, long sprawling banquettes– I mean what more can you ask for? And then PLUS the amazing view? perfection.
OK so anyways the nitty gritty– the food and service.
I ordered capriccio appetizer to share with my cousin and then their salmon hollandaise asparagus as my entrée — - but without the hollandaise. Why would you ruin a perfectly good piece of fish and some veggies with a gross fattening butter/​egg/​salt/​artery clogging/​heart attack/​cellulite sauce? bleh I dunno, BUT I went without it. And my food was DIVINE– Salmon cooked just so, not chewy or mushy, nice crisp on the outside. yummie yummie yum! and my carpaccio was excellent as well– simple, well executed, and not all messed up with the extra crap they tend to put on carpaccio dishes. I think I even got dessert too! but it was uhm after 3 glasses of wine so it starts to get a little hazy
which leads me to my next point– I love this restaurant so hard for having a nice Gaja by the glass. I know i said by the glass! A rare find– but a pleasant surprise none-​the-​less.
Our waitress/​server/​whatever I say waitress/​was very sweet, attentive, and up for the task of handling my family.
Everything went super smooth and great on my evening @ The View, except for one wittle bitty mis-​step that didn’t affect me, but I saw the whole event happening in my head before it went down
OK SO
Here is the thing, I can look over a menu and quickly figure out just how you need to order. I’m smart. This is what happened when I sat down at The View and surveyed their menu— I, being as smart as I am, quickly saw that The View has an a-​la-​carte menu (like Ruth Chris you knows?). SO I saw that my salmon dish already came with asparagus, 2 – 4 stalks i assumed because it was an a-​la-​carte menu. WooHOO! perfect I though– just the right portion for me. I ordered just the salmon.
… now you know how there are sins of commission and then there are sins of omission. I saw that the menu was a-​la-​carte, but no else in the fam seemed to notice– which was a oopsies on The Views part for not making it clear.
Anyways because I didn’t want to sound like a know it all I didn’t mention how it appeared that we had an a-​la-​carte menu on our hands. SOOO apps and salads come, everything goes well… then shit hit the fan cause here comes dinner… which is mostly just slabs of meat on bare plates. I sat there, knowing it was going to play out like this— I felt guilty for my sin of omission (you know those who see evil and do nothing) BUT honestly don’t you think SOMEONE would have noticed that MAYBE just maybe the menu need a little bit of explainin– cause some of the people at this fairly big (i.e. lucrative) party didn’t understand the menu. Especially considering how not a single one of them ordered a veggie side? NOW kudos to The View for scrambling and bringing out some vegetables and whatever shit they needed to to appease the fam, cause they brought it fast! I sat there while the veggies came out, sipping my Gaja, thinking hmmm that all just seems stressful to the staff.
STILL all of that could have been avoided with a little «so uhm our menu is a-​la-​carte, that means you are just going to get a plate and some meat if you don’t order correctly» would have been SUPER helpful, and could have saved everyone a little bit of anxiety.
anywho, thats my story and I’m sticking to it. I like you, you The View, i think you are great, but I had to doc you a star for causing my 82 year old grandma anxiety about not getting a potato.