Plates; An American Bistro

I have been wanting to try this fairly new restaurant located at the Promenade at the Peninsula in Rolling Hills Estates, California. Last Saturday, 2 of my friends and I decided to try it before going to see the play "Young Frankenstein" at the Norris Theater which by the way was fabulous.

Sue ordered the Beef Brisket Grilled Cheese with Muenster cheese, mustard, tomato, rapini on multigrain sourdough bread. She did like her sandwich. Sandi had the Grilled Cheese Fingers with bacon, cheddar on a Brioche bread stacked high. The presentation was nice but that was all. It was absolutely tasteless. I had one bite, she took several bites and that was it. I had the Lobster Roll which had big chunks of rubbery lobster and lots of celery. It did not have much flavor. Thank God the homemade potato chips were very good.

The Steak House Fries were fat and again tasteless. I don't know if the chef even tastes the food they send out. The restaurant has a variety of items, from Fish & Chips, to Hangar Steak, various salads, Duck Confit. This was our first time at Plates and I don't know if we will be returning anytime soon because if they can't get a simple Grilled Cheese right, how can I expect the rest to be good. Another observation was when the server saw there was a lot of left over and no one wanted to take it home, he should be trained to at least ask the customer if there was something wrong and if so, he should inform the manager/owner.