Why I Have Written Off The Greene Turtle

I'm not yet in the mood for writing political blog posts yet.  I'm still in the post election depression mode, though in a lot better mood than I was on Wednesday.  How could Marylander's vote for the redistricting map?  I'm baffled.

Anyway, I'm going to complain about something other than the stupidity of Maryland voters and instead complain about food.  We took a friend to The Greene Turtle for lunch last week to celebrate her birthday.  Now let me preface the rest with the statement that I loved it when The Greene Turtle opened in the former Hops restaurant in Owings Mills.  Hops was terrible.  The service was terrible and the food was incredibly moderate, the perfect recipe for failure.

The Greene Turtle opened with an awesome menu.  The Monte Cristo.  The Reuben.  Then they got rid of the Monte Cristo.  At least they still had the Reuben.  Until they got rid of the Reuben.  But that's okay, they added a turkey with cranberry crap sandwich.  Now, a couple years later, we're looking at a menu with half of the items that it originally had.  It doesn't even look like a menu for food.  It looks like something designed by an urban chic vegan mothers' support group.  Is this a brochure or a menu?

And the food?  Yeah, it sucks.  They have an amazingly bland spicy jack burger.  How do you make spicy jack bland???  Fortunately, the service is still pretty good.  You'll get your average-priced mostly tasteless food really quick.  I'm not sure what happened.  If it weren't for the beer at happy hour, I'm confident that The Greene Turtle would already be out of business.  I do predict, however, that without a major menu makeover, the restaurant is doomed for failure.

What's your least favorite restaurant?