So, when it comes time to pay, you are taxed on the higher amount (therefore, you're paying a tax on the restaurant's credit card service fees) and when you are shown suggested tips, they are based on the higher-taxed total, not the pre-tax amount of the meal. The goes for every other item on the bill, including drinks. The 4% service fee gets tacked on to the menu item pre-tax and pre-tip. For example, the seabass is listed as $36 on the menu, but it really costs $37.44, and is listed that way on the receipt. But the problem at Amelie was the manner in which they did this. A credit card processing fee is very often tacked on to the bill, so the restaurant doesn't lose money. We all know restaurants in the city now charge extra if you pay with a credit card. (You can email yourself a receipt, but I'm old school.) My biggest complaint, besides the coldish service, was the shifty way the bill was calculated. Our waiter disappeared and I never received the paper receipt I requested. After our credit card cleared, we were handed a credit card reader. The chocolate mousse, especially, had just enough depth without being overly rich. (How can you fully enjoy a mouthful with so little left to last?) The bread was fresh but served dry, though we dipped it in the various sauces that accompanied our apéritifs and entrees. The wine was rather ordinary and not a drop over 4 oz. My dining companion's hanger steak arrived swimming in a fermented sauce that simply overwhelmed the beef - she could barely taste it, though it was cooked to the correct temperature. Our main dishes were plated nicely, however my seabass, served in a bowl of butter and occasional vegetables, was rather bland. (Most doctors I've known have a better chairside manner than our waiter-of-few-words did.) Our apéritifs were all right - the escargots looked better than they tasted, and the crispy artichoke tasted better than it looked. I'm not a fan of chatty, overly-familiar waitstaff, but a warm smile goes a long way to making me feel welcome and relaxed. We were seated at a table for three, but it was in the noisy back section, close to the kitchen and a (music) speaker with a particularly efficient woofer pointed directly at my left ear.
My first impression was, I'm glad I'm not dining with just one other person, because the tables for two are pretty much on top of one another - in fact, they may as well be touching, they are that close. While we had a lovely evening together, it wasn't because of the food or service. Based on how hard it is to get a table, we were expecting something approaching greatness. The three of us - all longtime Upper West Siders - had dinner here recently.
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