• Potato Gnocchi with chicken, spinach, and bleu cheese $13.00 (shared)
• Grilled Sea Scallops - Jumbo scallops served on a bed of field greens and passion fruit vinaigrette and a Dijon cream sauce $22.00

As we were leaving Steve said "I think we did something to make the restaurant gods mad at us." Now I am not sure if I believe there is a god, let alone restaurant gods, but it would help explain our last few weeks.

Poor might be a bit strong, since we rarely give them out, and usually only to places where the food was all but inedible or the service was horrendous. But I think it in part reflects our frustration with both the third bad restaurant in a row, but also the fact that the place was packed. Granted it has a great location and it was very friendly and welcoming. But the service and food were way off for the price that they are charging.

The gnocchi was gummy, the chicken tasted like it was very overdone perhaps even left over from a different meal. The sauce was not too bad and consequently the highlight of the meal. My scallop entree had eight pieces of scallops on it, in no way were they jumbo, unless they were two jumbo ones cut up into eight pieces, which was a bit sad for the price. The salad and accompanying sauce both were fair at best.

To top off the evening we were asked if we wanted a dessert menu which we for some reason said sure and then I asked for a cappuccino and Steve ordered a cup of coffee. Our waitress brought our cup of coffee and said they were having problems with the cappuccino machine so she wasn't sure I would get my cappuccino which I said was fine. A bit later she brought my cappuccino and said to tell her if was not good. Well that puts me (a typically shy, midwestern, conflict adverse person) in a bit of uncomfortable spot. But this "cappuccino" had no foam and looked like a bit of coffee with some milk in it. So I did take a sip and I said it was not good. But why she would have brought that to me is beyond understanding. After that she did not bother to ask if we wanted dessert and brought the bill, which was perfectly fine as I still have plenty of Christmas cookies at home that I am sure were far better than anything they would have offered.

• Rack of Lamb potatoes with caramelized apples and red onion $26.00

You might think we are being too harsh on Spill the Wine. I think a poor rating is warranted because everything that came out of the kitchen was not good. Short of food poisoning, this is high priced food and it’s very low quality. I’m shocked and disappointed that the place was full the entire time we were there. Don’t people know better? At least if you go to the Spaghetti Factory down the street you pay half as much.

The rack of lamb, ordered medium rare, came out in four pieces: one rare, three medium well. Bizarre. The potatoes, undercooked. The accompanying apples, a good idea, but far too many to add flair, and made it seem as though they had to use the whole apple in the recipe (or they ran out of potatoes). I really couldn’t taste a red onion on the plate. In a search of past reviews, I’ve had good luck with lamb, and I’ve ordered it quite a bit lately. This lamb entrée is the worst I’ve ever had.

The potato gnocchi was also a disaster. The gnocchi was chewy and lifeless. As Renee said on the ride home, the chicken must have been from some leftover entrée, so it really wasn’t good either. Only the one or two bits of bleu cheese had a redemptive bit of flavor that was quickly dashed by the next catastrophic bite.

We seem to be on a mini slump here in the past two weeks, but maybe we are impatient. We’ve been fairly lucky in December with Peninsula , spoonriver, and Café Vin. It seems to be feast or famine – either really good or really not so good. I just hope we can find a few more good ones along the way, and I’m dreading a rash of January closings like we saw last year.