Had dinner at Agave last night, an attractive “Southwestern” restaurant in the Village. And it was fine. Totally fine. The margaritas were fine; the appetizers and entrees were fine; the dessert was fine. Nothing spectacular, but certainly nothing horribly dissatisfying, either.

Of course, there were some hiccups: the hostess situation when we walked in was bizarre (a woman who was not the hostess was standing at the hostess station, and rather than make an attempt at courtesy, made the fact that she was not the hostess abundantly clear to anyone who walked in the door), and the service started out as particularly lackluster (we were shuffled from server to server for about twenty minutes, before landing with one that stuck). But once these things were behind us, they were offset by a couple of resounding successes: a crab and spinach dip appetizer was particularly yummy, and steak fajitas induced near-orgasms in one of my companions.

So overall, the meal balanced out to…fine. And honestly, that’s how most of my dining experiences have been lately. There’s so much out there that falls within the “moderate” price range, and yet, so little of what I’ve been eating lately has struck me as anything particularly special. Last night my party of four spent $300, after tax and tip. Not outrageous, but also not cheap. And for that amount of money, I have to assume there are places out there I’ve yet to try that will really knock my socks off.

So am I just going to the wrong places? Or should I lower my expectations to embrace “fine,” and be glad that I rarely (if ever) have an experience I’d consider “bad”?

Related posts:

1. Stop Slurping
2. Les Enfants Pas Mals
3. Less Than A Month Till Steak And BJ Day
4. A Rather Little Italian Restaurant
5. It’s All Greek to Me: Taverna Kyclades