Comments on: Meridith’s, Berwyn

By: jen

jen — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 16:47:59 +0000

My husband and I had brunch at Meredith’s a week ago. We were excited because we didn’t have the kids. The service was mediocre at best and the food was disappointing. I had the heuvos rancheros and my husband had an omlette. The omlette was over cooked, but edible and my dish was just plain boring. The atmosphere was lively.

By: main line eaters

main line eaters — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:36:19 +0000

My wife and I went the day after Valentine’s Day hoping for another great local restaurant (we are spoiled on the Main Line). When we stepped in a month ago we made the mistake of coming in 15 minutes before they opened and the employee who handed us the menu was rude and a little too curt with prospective customers. Regardless, we decided to give them a try…

My wife enjoyed her wine. I chose one of the daily specials–opra prima tempranillo, Spain 2008–and only finished it because I dare not waste booze. It was oxidized and stale. Bad call.

The calamari was hidden inside a heap of over-fried vegetables. I order calamari wherever I go and this has to be the worst executed ever. The sauce (I believe mango something-or-other) was tasteless and thin.

My entree–duck confit gnocchi–was tasty but the gnocchi was overcooked. Together with the richness of the duck the mushy gnocchi made for a baby-foodish texture. My wife had the shrimp and scallops. The seafood was fresh (more of a compliment to the mongerer) but under seasoned. The bed of “New England potatoes” (whatever that means) was severely undercooked. The potatoes were downright raw.

The desert–pumpkin cream pie–was decent but overly sweet. To be frank, my mom puts together a better pie following the recipe on the can. For whatever reason, the chef decided to put a strawberry on top…blah. Toasted hazelnuts? Candied ginger? Sprig of herbaceous mint? Just about anything would make for a sexier dish than half of a (out-of-season) strawberry. Spread your garnish wings, chef.

Final verdict: pretentious, over-priced, and shockingly poorly executed. Basic technical flaws that have no place on the Main Line and definitely not for $30 entrees. I hope we caught them on an off day.

By: Curious Georgina

Curious Georgina — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 02:16:25 +0000

So sad…the New Years dining experience at Meredith’s. The menu was fixed. The appetizers and salads–Pretty good; The main course selections: Rack of Lamb–tough and terrible; Sea Bass–Bland and unremarkable; Quail–dry and stale. It appeared to be a cleaning out of all the old food left over from the previous year. Dessert promised on the fixed menu was a molten chocolate lava cake–this was not the cake delivered. The added bonus a newly instituted $7 dollar corking fee for each bottle of wine. If these are survival techniques for the tough economy, they are poorly designed. I felt sad for Meredith’s. thank goodness for the nice atmosphere and wonderful companionship of our dinner party.

By: Jody Harman

Jody Harman — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 03:12:07 +0000

Our salads were very good.
Zucchini and crab appetizers were tasteless. Veal was chewy. Ravioli and shrimp and scallop dishes were also tasteless. Red bliss potatoes were not cooked.
The waitress never smiled, looked at us, or came to ask how anything was.
It was unpleasant experience on too many levels.

By: Matthew Steiger

Matthew Steiger — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 03:13:12 +0000

I dined at the new location across from handel’s ice cream. Beautifully decorated… wish my experience was the same. The calamari was sparse, and over-cooked. What I thought was a drunk customer ended up being the owner who asked us how our dinner was going, but in a contrived sort of way. My wife and I watched her stomp around the dining room with a glass of wine in her hand for an hour and a half. The only positive spin I can put on the experience was that I had a pleasant, sober, waiter.

I’ll stick to my regular BYO in wayne.

By: Heidi

Heidi — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:31:54 +0000

Meredith’s new location is fantastic, but after my experience yesterday, I will not be returning. During our 1.5 hour experience, my order never came out. They brought the wrong thing to me, after the waiter wrote down my order and told me how happy I’d be with it, and then after 20 minutes and my husband being finished with his brunch, I had to get someone’s attention and tell them to cancel the order altogether since I didn’t want to sit and eat after my husband was already finished.
In addition, we had to ask the hostess for refills on our drinks and sat there most of the 1.5 hours with empty glasses. No one ever came back to tell me the status of my re-order AND when the manager came with our bill, we were charged not only for the wrong item that came out, but also the original order I ordered that never came out. We had to get the bill adjusted twice before we finally paid for only my husband’s meal.
Ridiculous.
For the location, price and quality that this place boasts, the service was horrific – and it was only about 2/3 full yesterday when we arrived.
They gave me a $15 gift certificate to use the NEXT time I come – which they may as well have saved the paper and not printed out for me.

The food is good – the ambiance is beautiful but when you leave starving and thirsty and have to haggle to get your bill correct, I will not be spending any more time there.

By: Tanya

Tanya — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 00:51:57 +0000

I just went there last night with a friend, who told me that this is Meredith’s very recent NEW location. In March, after dining at the previous location, she and her husband booked a private room for a wedding rehearsal party in October. Well, she (and I) were so pleasantly surprised. The atmosphere is trendy and upscale, and she is very much pleased with the room that will be used for their dinner party. We dined outside where the weather was beautiful, the service helpful and friendly. The menu is creative, and we both thoroughly enjoyed the flavors and temperature of our appetizers, entrees, and desserts. Even the coffee was yummy! I HIGHLY recommend that you try this dining experience !

By: Common Cents

Common Cents — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 01:31:29 +0000

We tried Meredith’s on a Friday evening, immediately after they introduced their new menu. We found the service to be excellent and our meals were delicious. We will definitely return!

By: Frequent main line diner

Frequent main line diner — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 22:13:12 +0000

I really wanted this place to be good. We ate here on a Sunday night, there were 5 of us. Upon walking in, it was really cute but then noticed that the whole place was filled with smoke. It was stuffy and smelled liked something had burned. Throughout the meal, this never went away. The service was a little slow to get to our table considering there was a large party of about 10 in the place and that’s it. 3 people had the fixed menu and 2 ordered off the regular menu. The appetizers we had were seafood chowder, butternut squash soup and calamari. The chowder was ridiculously salty and the only “seafood” in there was some crab. The squash soup was ok, a little goopy for my taste and the calamari was just fried breading. So much, you couldn’t taste the calamari. Entrees included salmon, steak and pork. The pork was like shoe leather. The other entrees weren’t awful, but we were not overly impressed. The desserts were good, but presentation was sad. There was a half of a dead-looking strawberry on each plate and that’s it. And while we were served dessert, our bread plates with half eaten bread were still sitting on the table. It’s attention to detail from servers such as this and mediocre food which makes me never want to go back and certainly wouldn’t recommend it. I was disappointed and honestly had higher hopes.

By: Mimi

Mimi — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 16:05:51 +0000

How do you spell ostentatious, pretentious, and overpriced? Merediths. You guys need to learn a little bit about people. They actually have brains! and Chef – you don’t put lemon juice in red sauce – especially when it’s costing $38. Won’t be returning.