Smothered Mussels

I was in a Brew House in Richmond, VA last night and ordered some mussels in a sauce of bacon and smoked gouda.  I envisioned a sauce that was rich and thicker than normal.  I did get a thicker sauce along with large clumps of melting gouda totally overpowering the mussels and bacon.  Or they forgot the bacon, I didn't get a hint of it with all the large handfulls of gouda refusing to go away. This was a signiture item. How can a restaurant go so wrong?  Or am I just off the mark?  I've seen mussels with blue cheese and bacon, but the blue cheese was not in large handfuls which refused to go away.  I might as well have ordered a bowl of melted cheese and saved the mussels the humiliation.  Has anyone else had restaurants go too far with ingrediants?  Perhaps the original recipe had just enough cheese to add a smokey aftertaste to the broth.