Clover Eats!

When I first moved to Ann Arbor, there were some great Restaurant.com deals that we bought for Melange. I remembered liking the River Rock, a hot rock that you can sizzle pieces of steak on, as well as some of their cocktails. We recently went back for the first time in three years.

It’s pretty similar to how I remember it, with a neat, descending entrance.  Since I’ve last been there, the menus have been upgraded to glowing menus.  At first, I thought they were iPads, but then I saw they were just bright screens with pieces of paper over them.  It was nice because the whole restaurant is pretty dimly lit.  The atmosphere is very nice, probably the nicest aspect of the experience.

I got the Wildflower, which is made from grapefruit vodka, blood orange, basil, and pama liquer.  Fred got the Barfly, which was fig gin, campari, cherry heering, cranberry juice, and angostura bitters.  My Wildflower was delightful, but my friend’s tasted very watery and bland. I had to get the River Rock again, and it was just as fun as I remembered.  However, for some reason, this time the meat wasn’t as tender or flavorful as I remembered. We had a big party, so I understand that things will take longer to come out, but my friend’s dish was actually cold by the time it was served. There should be ways to prevent this from happening, even if a party is large. Overall, the food was decent but overpriced for the quality.

While I always remembered the service to be on the slow side, it was especially slow on this occasion. I try to be understanding when dining in a large party, but this meal lasted nearly four hours. They were unable to split the bill, added on a rather high 20% automatic gratuity, and also happily offered to cut a cake for us without informing us of a $24 cake cutting fee. Overall, while there is nothing blatantly wrong with the food, I don’t think the experience at Melange is in accordance with its price range. Check them out on Yelp or at their website.