Terry's Finer Foods For More-The Restaurant

Last night, my big brother, who is extremely generous, took me out to dinner to experience the new dining sensation in Little Rock.  For anyone who has been to Terry's Finer Foods, you surely can understand the epithet Terry's Finer Foods for More.  It is a frightening example of charging the Heights clientèle significantly more for the exact same products you would expect to buy anywhere else for much less.  But this is not a critique of the store, although it was clear that the owner employs the same business model for his restaurant that he uses in running his store.
It was fairly early in the evening when were seated, and upon first impression this downtown Heights restaurant appeared like a charming little cafe/bistro with cafe curtains and old wine bottles decorating the intimate dining room.  There were some older couples who were delightfully enjoying their meals. The menu; however, was relatively small and extremely pricey.  The first thing I noticed was that the restaurant was charging extra for what I consider to be just part of any normal overpriced meal.  An extra charge for bernaise for your steak, that seemed a bit absurd!  But my brother and sister in law who had dined there before told me that the food was extremely good and worth the price. Nothing seemed extremely special to me on the menu and after I had decided upon a french onion soup and Caesar salad for dinner the waiter came and told us about the special for the evening.  I do love fish, especially if it is fresh, so I gave in to temptation and ordered the halibut with lobster sauce.  My entree was $45.00, included with the fish and the sauce were approximately  6 mini sized potatoes. That's it. There were no beautiful garnishes, no attempts at adding a vegetable, just the white fish with the white potatoes.  Not even a pretext of a beautiful presentation or a balanced meal. My daughter, 15, couldnt find anything on the menu to eat besides a salad and french fries, which she truly did enjoy. My sister-in-law had breast of duck and it was simply that, breast of duck, nicely cooked, but no special sauce to bring out the flavor of the meat.  For the price, the food was adequate, maybe less than adequate.  There was nothing exceptional about the presentation or the taste of the food.  It was completely devoid of any artistic expression.
To make matters worse, my dinner guests and I felt like we had missed the memo on  bleaching our hair blond and hitting the gym before donning our strapless dresses to fit in better in this highly pretentious restaurant .  The frivolity about the atmosphere was loud and showy and reeked of new monied men with their newlywed trophy wives.
Aside from the disappointing and overpriced food,  I would say the worst insult of the evening was the tap water that was served out of  beautiful water bottles.  The water was simply tap water, it reeked of chlorine and for those who drink filtered or bottled water it was almost impossible to drink especially as it got warmed up on the table.
The service was abominably slow; even for an "elegantly" cooked meal.  We waited what seemed like forever for the meal and then again for the check.  The best  part of the meal was that my wonderful brother noticed that they undercharged us and he told the waiter (yes, there are people who are still honest).  After the waiter returned with the bill which now showed overcharges, we finally got a bill that seemed reasonable (LOL) after some significant wait time and we finally paid the bill and left.  As we walked out of the restaurant we were treated to all the BMWs and Mercedes, the ones we see in front of Terry's Finer Foods for More, but never in front of Kroger, 1 mile away.  This is one restaurant where the proprietor is laughing all the way to the bank.  If you need to be seen, and heard and overpay for the pleasure this is the spot to go to on a Saturday night.