Anna K.
Yelp
My friend and I held a bridal shower here recently because of the rave reviews about this bistro. From the first conversation I had with the manager, Jana, I felt like my booking was an inconvenience to her. I booked the shower a month and a half before the date and she had mentioned that the day was not booked and that our party of 12 would be accommodated. She then said it was a $50 non-refundable booking fee...which is fine because that is what it said on the website. A few days later, when I had updated the party size to 16, Jana seemed so shocked with the number. I honestly did not think adding 4 people was a big deal. She kept saying that their restaurant was a very small restaurant and she wanted to make sure everyone would be accommodated (which made me confused because she just said a few days earlier that they didn't have any bookings). So I gave her my cc number to hold the spot. A couple days later, I noticed a $100 fee was on my statement. When I called her about that she said that was their fee; I told her that the website only said $50. Her response was, "we were supposed to change that but it hasn't been done". No apologies. well...that was that.
A day before our event, i had called to ask about our seating arrangements. Jana said that she can only seat us in the restaurant because they can only accommodate a party of 12 in the patio because of its size. She then said that the restaurant is fully booked and that we would have to keep our conversations/speeches to a minimum as to not disturb the guests. fair enough. My friend who was organizing the event with me had been to a shower at the bistro before and knew of the setup. She called Jana after and asked if there is anyway we can be seated on the patio because as she can remember, the patio can easily seat 16, especially if we they had already planned to seat us in 2 tables side by side. Jana clearly stated that there is no possible way that can be done.
Upon arrival to the bistro, we were greeted by the very friendly wait staff. The restaurant was empty and we were there to set up. You would think that since they had know we were a group coming for a bridal shower that they would arrange us in a way that would conducive to the event. They arranged our tables right in the middle of the restaurant. When we looked at the patio, it was very spacious and had maybe 8 tables of 4 seats set up. We were not greeted by Jana at all when we walked in, even thought the restaurant was empty and a number of the wait staff had already welcomed us (Jana was in the room when we arrived as well). My friend asked Jana once more if she can make an exception and seat us outside even if we were in 4 different tables and had our food served at different times. Jana then said that there is no way they can do that and that there is too many of us. She even said they were booked outside with all their regulars and nothing can be done and walk away.
What do you know...the restaurant was not fully booked. We did not need to be seated at the centre of the restaurant. The corner would have been better- at least we were off to the side. The patio had guests there, but it looked more like a casual family lunch with young children (I highly doubt they were all regulars).
I'm sorry but if you are in the service industry, you not only have to be a personable representative of the company, but you have to be accommodating (or even try to be) and friendly!!
The food was delicious and the venue was beautiful. It is a shame all I can think about is the poor customer service!!!!!!
(we did a wine tour and tasting after with Bryce and he was amazing!!! he tailored the tour and tasting to the groups needs and made that part of the shower memorable. He was insightful, funny and down to earth!)