Lord & Taylor

It seems that Lord & Taylor has been replaced at Phipps. I just found this out. There is now a Nordstrom. I don't know the difference except that Nordstrom has a little restaurant inside it. Needless to say I tried it out on Sunday with the three little ladies for lunch. It was quite pleasant and involved ordering before you sit down but then someone brings you your food. Don't really know why other than that I assume they don't trust their servers. Either way, it was very quick and pleasant. I thought the food was a little bit overwrought. A little too strong of an attempt to make fancy food that they could somehow justify charging $9 for a sandwich. I was not unusually hungry for what they served, so I just had a crab bisque and a caesar salad. I was underwhelmed. The soup was very cheesy??? and did not have a very good crab flavor. They also put in some sort of pepper ragu which would have been good in some things but I didn't really think matched the rest of the soup. The salad was somewhat flavorless and didn't have near enough anchovies or parmesan in the dressing. This makes for a bland dressing.

C had a steak sandwich which I thought was pretty good. The steak was sliced very think, almost roast beef like with some carmelized onions and various other toppings. Again a bit too fancy but the meat was quite tasty. C agreed but said she has had a club sandwich there before which was much better.

The best part of the meal (aside from not being too busy on a Sunday brunch hour) were the french fries. They are the thin kind and cooked quite nicely. Christine's had some cilantro on them which I could have done without but N's were cooked normally and tasted great.

All in all, I would try this place again. I have a feeling that the salad and soup were just off that day. The location is sort of a nice break from the food court or the high-end other restaurants in Phipps. It is still quite pricey for what I considered to be lunch time food. Also, they need to lay off the fancy and just cook. Sometimes, all you want is a turkey sandwich. Not one with cranberry dressing, truffles, dillweed with a mango sauce.