I had one night at the adjacent Resident Inn and being tired did not want to walk far for dinner alone. My previous experiences at Mimi’s had been mixed, and against my better judgment decided to give Stars a try.

I was seated quickly enough at 8:05 p.m. The restaurant had few diners inside even though the sidewalk seating seemed pretty active.

I ordered one wine and after a few minutes wait was told was not in. I asked for the second and the waiter said “We are out of a lot of wines.” Giving up, I asked her to bring me a glass of house red.

It took so long that I began to calculate a “get up and walk out” time. Finally, just before my deadline, she appeared with the house wine. No complaints with the wine. It was reasonably good. It had certainly been aged a few extra minutes.

3 interjections: (1) I was never offered any bread or asked if I wanted a salad or appetizer. (2) No new diners came in from 8:05 until 8:24. I thought this rather odd in such a bustling area on a Friday night. (3) A nearby diner appeared to return to the kitchen a mussel dish. I did not wish to intrude or be too obvious, so I can not verify the cause of this apparent return.

My entree was an aged beef tenderloin with a wine demi-glaze sauce. Under it were helpings of spinach and potatoes. I ordered the beef medium rare, but the cut was so thin the request was pointless. The sauce overpowered the meat and gave it a salty, frozen dinner flavor—certainly not the one I expect with a premium piece of beef.

The singing? Well, it seemed to be “rare” between 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m., but what I heard wasn’t bad. I would have enjoyed it more if it had been over an excellent meal rather than a mediocre one.