andy and i really need to try more new places. last week we went to metropolis after a fairly long hiatus. either they were having a really off night, or they've gone really downhill; i'm inclined to think the latter. i can say w/ out reserve that our meal at metropolis was one of the weirdest meals i've ever had. weird as in not in a good way. andy started with an arugula salad that for no particular reason came shredded and molded in a circular shape reminescent of dog food just out of a can and had what appeared to be a canned piece of mandarin orange and a half-frozen hunk of goat cheese on the top. meanwhile, i was puzzling over the asparagus "tartare" which didn't taste much of anything let alone asparagus and which also inexplicably came molded. andy's rabbit was prepared like chicken and was dry and overcooked. it came with the weirdest gnocchi i've ever encountered. engorged, mushy, and unappetizing. i hate to say it, but it strongly called to mind fat, old maggots found under a damp log. also devoid of taste. my "napolean" was described as being "like a lasagna but with bread instead of pasta". it came w/ a squash puree, but like pretty much everything else we'd gotten it was similarly tasteless, although every once in a while i would come across a bit of olive. it's kind of sad when the only good thing you can say about the food is, "well, the bread and the olive oil were pretty good." regarding bar food vs dining room food: i can understand the distinctions between the two, but in a place like number nine park where it's not a bar menu but a cafe menu i don't see why you can't have both menus wherever you sit. even if the rationale is that the cafe food is faster, thus giving a faster turnover rate, that still doesn't explain why you can't have both if you sit in the dining room. one of life's many mysteries i suppose.