Review of Du Jour

Two words: Don't Bother. Why? Well let me rant for a bit about one the worst dining experiences I've ever endured. First off, I know that Du Jour has been rated very highly by the Richmond Times Dispatch, that's one of the reason I went there. And it another reason why I think the Dispatch is a crappy paper, but that's another topic altogether. Back to Du Jour. It's located out in Westhampton a lovely suburban small town centre that reminds me of my own home town Great Falls, VA. And just like Great Falls, its full of suburban snobbery, at least restaurants in Great Falls deliver on what they promise, unlike Du Jour.

The service was atrocious, except for our very nice waitress. The hostess kept us waiting just long enough to be uncomfortable, especially when there were three empty tables for two and we were a party of two. But then again I guess we didn't look like the Sunday-brunch after Church crowd, so it was okay to keep us waiting in the cramped entrance. When we finally got a table and could settle down, my dining partner noticed the interesting art on the walls that was surprisingly daring for the West End. To bad the art couldn't make up for all the other things that the restaurant lacked.

When our waitress came over to take our order, we were informed that my dining partner's (William the faithful guinea pig) selection was not available, neither were the quiches which were the other options on the special's list. So back to the menu we went, I finally choose the pancakes with strawberries and Will picked a California BLT without the bacon. Which reminds me that the vegan options were rather limited, most of the quiches came with meat as did the sandwiches. Otherwise there was your usually breakfast entrees, eggs benedict, eggs cheasapeake (eggs benedict with crab), a few hot sandwhiches and some salads and fish entrees.

So the service was pretty bad, but certainly not as bad as the food. Will's coffee was so bitter and retched that large amount of cream couldn't save it. Will's sandwhich came on what had to have been store bought wheat bread, thinly sliced, flabby and tasteless. The only interesting part of his brunch was the sandwhich spread. Indeed his sandwhich came with some broken potato chips. That hardly compared to my pancakes. Which looked delicious, and were plated very nicely with a cheese-pototo gratin and fresh fruit. Too bad that after taking two bites I turned green as I looked down on uncooked pancake batter oozing out onto my plate. That was the closest I'd ever come to vomitting at the dinner table. But I rallied on and skipped over the top pancake and tried the second one. But nope that one was just as uncooked and disgusting as the first. So I tried the chucky potato gratin-salad things. Too bad there also, some of the potato squares were uncooked, others were cooked just right, but the uneven texture just ruine dthe whole thing. At least the fresh fruit was okay, but then it's pretty damn difficult to mess that up.

Well, I mentioned my food to the waitress and she offered to bring me something else, but by then I felt sick and queasy and got the check instead. At least they didn't charge me for my food, but the check still came to $10 for Will's pathetic sandwhich. And I would have no problem paying this sort of money for a sandwhich, but only if it contained quality ingredients and in this case it didn't. So maybe brunch is not Du Jour's thing. But after this experience, I'm unwilling to make any effort to try their dinner. Like Will said, overcooked food is a matter of taste, undercooked food is a matter of health and I'm in no mood to chance food poisoning.