Went to Legal Seafoods in Crystal City (Northern Virginia) last night for a birthday get-together.

Legal Seafoods frequently get WS awards for their wine lists.

What I want to know is this: Does WS actually go to all of these award winners and see what the restaurant is like, or are the decisions based on their food and wine lists on paper?

The reason I ask is this:

1) My wife ordered the only champagne-by-the-glass on the menu (by the 175mL bottle, actually). It was a Perrier-Jouet, and they substituted a Freixenet without asking, saying something like "this is the good stuff" she reported. That annoyed me.

2) I had a couple of wines by the glass... a white Sancerre from their fridge was nice. I had a glass of Wolf Blass Green Label, and it was okay. But it was warm and tasted like it was fighting for its life in a 75 degree environment.

3) We were pleasantly surprised they had a favorite wine of ours on the menu, and so we ordered a Michele Castellani Amarone (1998). It was almost drinkable, but was cooked. So we sent it back. They said they had six bottles of it... ordered together and stored the same way.

4) So we got a Chat. du Pape (Beau-something), and it was drinkable, but it was unpleasantly warm as well.

5) Their wine service was super slow.

Tasted to me like they were serving the bottles they store upright in the warm bar up on the walls.

What good is having a nice selection of wines if you store them improperly and they taste bad?

None of them were bad enough that someone who isn't into wines would send them back, I'm guessing. But most of you would not be pleased.

This Legal Seafoods isn't necessarily one that got a WS award, but it made me wonder. Would WS catch them before rewarding them?

White wine or worse, champagne by the glass is something I do not do. I only order white wine by the bottle with ice bucket right next to me.

Avoids the stale or warm wine problem.

Your experience is also why I really try to BYO more and more now. It is soooo aggrevating.

Bringing my own just takes away so much of the dining anxiety when I know at least the wine will be good and at the right temp. If I'm at an "A" list restaraunt, I don't worry as much, but other places I just don't trust it.

lentini,

My understanding is that the Legal Seafoods wine list is the same (virtually) in all their stores, and that this list is what was submitted to WS. I had a horrible experience in the Baltimore (Inner Harbor) Legal Seafoods branch which primarily revolved around poor wine service. 20 minutes after ordering our bottle, we had not heard a word from the server. It appears that they have a corporate policy dictating that bottles over $45 in value have to be opened by management???

The "manager" was inattentive, and rude when I finally had the chance to speak with him on the way out.

I must say that except for this one occasion I have always had great food and service at other Legal Seafood branches. Their list is quite fairly priced (1996 Dom Perignon @ $120 ). Their Perrier Jouet splits used to retail for $8.50 at the branch near me, but even at the current $10.00 are a steal. Interesting they sell the 750 for $60, so I just order a succession of 187.5's to accompany my chowdah and lobster rolls!!

PH

I ate at LS in the Boston area several years ago and was very underwhelmed... I see they have never changed, but seem to survive in spite of themselves.

Thank you for this report on Legal Seafoods.

Wine Spectator Restaurant Awards are judged on the basis of wine lists, menus and additional information we request from the restaurants. We inspect all Grand Award candidates, but can only make sporadic visits to restaurants at other levels. We depend on feedback from our readers who have visited these restaurants to alert us to problems.

I have had some excellent meals at various Legal Seafoods. Judging from the wine lists they submit for judging, they are making a serious effort to offer interesting wines at fair prices.

However, service is always the key. If a server is poorly trained or simply overwhelmed, the high goals of a corporate wine program can be undermined. That sounds like the case in these critical posts.

We will alert Legal Seafoods about these problems, and will give their lists extra scrutiny in this year's judging. We want our readers to have the best wine experiences possible in our award-winning restaurants.

But let's also remember that even the best restaurant has an off-night once in a while. Any business that relies on human beings can never be perfect!

Thomas Matthews
Executive editor

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We will alert Legal Seafoods about these problems, and will give their lists extra scrutiny in this year's judging.

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Putting them on double secret probation?