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• Reviewed | Voice Places | Nov 30, 2012

  

  The Block

  Not worth the price. Snooty portions. Egotistical owner. Mark or Matt? I went in early this week and as an appetizer, ordered the shrimp and grits. Growing up in the south, I expected white, well "gritty" grits.
  
  What I got was polenta, but didn't realize it until after I'd left the restaurant. I commented to my fellow diners how strange it was that they were so fine and...yellow. Tasteless, besides.
  
  The shrimp (3) were very greasy, there was a fair amount of onion and the sauce drizzled on top was alright.
  
  I called the restaurant the next day and spoke to someone who insisted she was a manager, but didn't sound too convincing. She said one of the owners would call me back, but nothing, sooooo...
  
  I called back the next evening and spoke with Mark or Matt, who when I said, well if they were going to substitute polenta instead of grits, I would like to have been asked if that was ok or given the option to order something else, at which he insisted they use "fine yellow grits," vs. the white, coarse hominy grits.
  
  Um, ok.
  
  So I did the research today:
  
  From chowhound:
  Hominy is lye-treated corn, so hominy grits is the coarse white meal that is used in Southern country-style cooking to make "grits," the traditional breakfast plate accompaniment to eggs. Yellow corn grits is really a coarse ground corn meal, which is what one would use to make cornmeal mush, that unappealing-sounding name for what in Italy is the sublimely-elegant-sounding polenta.
  
  SO I WAS RIGHT, BUT TOLD I WAS WRONG. Grits are grits, y'all.
  
  How should he have handled it? Well, I did not get an APOLOGY. He did not offer the thought that maybe they should CHANGE the way it's worded on the menu, so as to avoid future diners being disappointed. Perhaps something like a FREE DRINK or appetizer to entice me back?
  
  Nada, folks. Just thinly veiled insistence that I was an idiot.
  
  Disappointing and not worth the dough: my total bill was almost $32 for an appetizer (water to drink), a special beet salad and a dessert (the ice cream was equivalent to one large melon baller scoop - more disappointment for an otherwise tasty special dessert (cranberries and something).
  
  Won't go back!!!

• Commented | Riverfront Times | Nov 30, 2012

  

  Gut Check - Robin Utz - The Block Carves Up Webster Groves With Another Restaurant

  Not worth the price. Snooty portions. Egotistical owner. Mark or Matt? I went in early this week and as an appetizer, ordered the shrimp and grits. Growing up in the south, I expected white, well "gritty" grits.  What I got was polenta, but didn't realize it until after I'd left the restaurant...

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