What is the sentiment of the following review?
We went to Blue Hound with a group of friends who come together to have a great meal and amazing company. The ambiance of the place is very cool. The furniture, decor and lighting were all extremely well done. The bar area was packed and people were enjoying their drinks and some light appetizers. The down side in design and construction is that nothing was created to buffer the sound. I get it, it is Friday night in a trendy restaurant, but the acoustics were an assault on my ears and prevented my friends and I from having any conversations unless we were almost yelling at each other. We began the meal with drinks and appetizers which were good. We had tater tots, caramel corn and deviled eggs. The tots were very good, I really enjoyed the flavor and the accompanying dipping sauce. The caramel corn was ok, but the spice was a little overwhelming to the point where it was not balancing the sweet... at times I couldnt event really appreciate any of the sweetness. Lastly the deviled eggs were... well deviled eggs and not as impressive as the deviled eggs I have had at Chelsea's Kitchen. I am glad our waiter recommended the short ribs with the blue cheese grits, it was probably the single best dish on their entire menu, the rest seemed... eh. The short rib was absolutely killer, it had a sasperilla glaze on it that was amazing and the meat just fell off of the bone. I was really happy with my choice as apposed to my dinner mates, probably to their annoyance because I was making a lot of sounds as I engulfed my dish. My wife had macaroni and cheese in the smallest bowl I have ever seen. I get it, macaroni and cheese can be extremely rich, but it still is macaroni and cheese and you are charging $12 for it, so show me a little love. Again, I have had better at the chain the Yardhouse with truffle oil and it is all that and more... for about the same price. I did not have dessert, but that is because nothing excited me on the dessert menu and in the back of my head I was thinking I would stop by Churn on the way home for some ice cream and home made caramel sauce (that did not happen, but I thought about it... a lot). Trying not to sound like a broken record, but service makes or kills a business and I was not impressed by our waiter. I know we had some challenges with a few of the dishes and at the end of the meal he acted annoyed with us when sorting out the checks. I don't care how large the group is an what mandatory gratuity is imposed on me on the bill, but I was almost to the point of having that gratuity taken off because of how annoyed our waiter was acting with the group. Again, I get it, large group, lots of tickets, but to act that annoyed was not called for. It was brought to my attention that this restaurant made the 10 best new places to eat in Phoenix by Phoenix Magazine and I really take issue with their judgement. Phoenix Magazine assigning that type of status to this restaurant really calls into question their credibility as a publication. Maybe they were dazzled by the trendy atmosphere, but I am more about substance than style and Blue Hound does not meet any criteria of being considered the best of anything. Blue Hound is not the worst place I have ever been to, but it is one of the most mediocre places I have been to. I find Phoenix Magazine calling this place one of the 10 new best of places to be offensive to the efforts of other area restaurants much more deserving of that designation. Overall I was glad that we gave it a go, but it is not a place that I would go out of my way to go again. My dish was really good... REALLY good... but if I went again I would wonder what else I might try and from what I saw I don't know if I would be that interested in any of the other offerings.
negative