Restaurant trend I can do without

We went to National Harbor Saturday after running errands and, well, we don't need to do that again. (The first part. We are doomed to always need to run errands. I accept that.)

While we were there, we ate at a mediocre restaurant with high prices. Again, next time, um, no.

But I noticed that this restaurant had one of those mix and match menus that seem to be the rage. You get to pick from, say, four grilled fish choices. Then you get to pick, say, one of five sauces, to go with your fish. Nowhere on the menu is there any recommendation by the establishment, much less the chef, as to which sauce would ideally complement which fish. They'd rather you play Concentration (remember that game?) and maybe get a match, maybe not.

Now, if I go to a cafeteria or an all-you-can-eat buffet, I expect this kind of "Do what you will with the food. We are no longer responsible if you put mashed potatoes on your blueberry cobbler or douse your onion soup with malt vinegar" attitude. But, I see this more and more at supposedly upscale restaurants. Why am I paying to eat at a restaurant in order to take a gamble that I know how to combine what the kitchen has prepared?

Are they really trying to tell me that the halibut will taste equally fabulous with the lemon caper hollandaise as the fennel olive oil emulsion? And don't even get me started on the sauce entitled "lobster foam." I don't want to know what they do to the lobster to get it foaming. I just know what they did to me.