Dinner at Rediviva

Rediviva Restaurant

Yeah, a day off! I started the day doing laundry at the only Laundromat in town. Picked up my email at the library next. Then I was ready for some fun.
 
I’d invited my in-laws, Terry and Teresa, to dinner and we settled on Rediviva in Aberdeen. The Internet ratings seemed good at 4 out of 5 stars. However, I’d be hard-pressed to give them more than 3 stars – maybe fewer.
 
It all started when I arrived early to ensure that all was well with our reservations and that I liked our table placement. They did not have my reservation. Rediviva relies on the Web to maintain their bookings and they’d lost their connection, so they had no idea who or how many reservations they had for the evening. Regardless, since it was only 6:00 PM, I had my choice of tables for our party.
 
When it came time to order, I asked whether our waitress – a well-spoken, well-dressed, seemingly knowledgeable young woman – would recommend the salmon or the steak. She recommended the steak, not because the steak was better, but because they were out of salmon. Remember, it was only 6:30 PM by this time and the menu changes daily I understand. But okay, I went with the steak. My brother-in-law had ordered the rockfish.
 
Ten or fifteen minutes later, our waitress returned to our table to tell Terry that they were out of rock fish and she said they could substitute salmon instead. Remember, they were out of salmon earlier, so she quickly had to backtrack and Terry settled for steak.
 
I asked whether we could have bread since it was mentioned and recommended in several reviews that I read about Rediviva. Our waitress informed us that they don’t have bread available on Mondays because it comes from a bakery and the bakery is closed on Sunday. In unison, we reminded her that today was Tuesday. Flustered, she replied that today was their Monday. I still have no idea what she meant by that comment.
 
She offered to have the kitchen make some toast for us and I said, “Great, we’ll take toast then.” However, we never received the toast that I ordered and I let the matter drop.
 
As the meal progressed, we had several courses and I ran out of forks, so when our main course arrived, I asked for a fork. Our waitress asked whether Teresa and I would like some more wine and I said, “Yes, please,” but Teresa declined. As our waitress walked away, I mentioned to Terry and Teresa that she’ll probably return with my wine, but will forget the fork. Sure enough, she was so intent on bumping up the bill with an alcohol sale that she went behind the bar, poured the wine and returned without a fork. When she set the wine down, I looked at her and said, “And my fork?” By this time, she was beside herself.
 
We also ran out of water. The water was served in a carafe that servers leave at the table. When we ran out, I moved the carafe to the edge of the table so it would be the first thing that our waitress would see, but she looked right passed it. I had to eventually wave my hand in the air to get her attention so she would refill our carafe and glasses.
 
The food was good, for the most part. The roasted brussel sprouts were nutty and flavorful and the steaks pepper encrusted were done medium rare as requested. However, the butter lettuce in my pear salad was limp, warm and brown at the edges. Moreover, the clam chowder was underwhelming and had an off flavor of an unusual spice for chowder.
 
Now that I’ve reread this review, I guess I’d have to settle on a 2-star rating for Rediviva.

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