Josh G.
Yelp
1. The food is pretty good. If the owner wasn't completely disinterested in customer service, I'd give this place 4-5 stars.
2. The owner is completely disinterested in customer service.
After a solid experience last week, we ordered Barn Rau again tonight through Caviar. Order accepted -- delivery in 40-50 mins. 25 minutes later someone calls to tell us they don't have FOUR of the FIVE dishes we ordered. In fact, those dishes aren't even on the menu anymore. She asks what we'd like to substitute. I say I don't have a menu in front of me, so she suggests ordering through Uber Eats instead. I explain that Caviar already has our money, so she starts thinking of random foods that are about the same price. After about 30 seconds, I interrupt and ask her to cancel the order so we can just do it through Uber Eats.
Interestingly, on the Uber Eats app all the dishes she said they don't serve anymore show as "Sold Out." Strange. But I'm still hungry for Thai, so we fill up our cart. Now, however, the total is $20 MORE. I'm getting frustrated. So...
I call back to inquire about the "sold out" dishes she claimed were no longer on the menu. She says "sold out" means they literally don't sell them anymore -- which is weird, because one of the "sold out" dishes is crab rangoon, a Thai staple that I ordered last week. She says, "Oh,.. well that IS still on the menu." Really? I then ask about the difference in price, and she suggests NOT using Uber Eats, but Postmates instead. I remind her that SHE'S THE ONE WHO SUGGESTED using Uber Eats, and that we're already 40 mins past when we placed our original order. With that in mind, I ask if she can simply comp us an appetizer or something so that we can get the order in. She says she cannot. But I'm still hungry, so I agree to try ordering through Postmates.
The Postmates menu, however, looks nothing like the Uber Eats or Caviar menu. Half the items are not there, and the other half are items that aren't on EITHER of those menus. Not able to build the same order, we call back to ask about the discrepancies. She says there aren't any discrepancies; that the Uber Eats and Postmates menus are exactly the same. I explain, in detail, how they are not. I mention how much we love their food, and that we'd really just like to get an order in as it's now PAST the originally delivery time. I suggest again, that due to the mixups, the missing menu items, and the $20 price difference, that perhaps she COULD help us out with a comped appetizer or a discount on the meal. She again says that this is impossible. So we ask to speak with the owner. She says she IS the owner. Hmmm...
The fact that she "CANNOT" help us out a little tells me she's either lying about being the owner, or lying that she cannot help us out -- because when you own a business (as I do), you can do whatever the hell you please. Heck, the owner of H.O.P.E. on Ventura not only comped me an entire meal due to a mixup once, she stayed after hours to prepare it herself and delivered it to my house PERSONALLY. That's way above and beyond the call, but you bet I eat there all the time now. It's called Customer Service. Speaking of...
We ask this person on the phone if, as the owner, she feels that she's provided good customer service this evening. She says yes. We explain that we don't feel the same, and ask if there's anything else she could offer to meet us in the middle. She says no, and that she really doesn't have time to talk to us anymore. CLICK.
WHOEVER owns Barn Rau, it'd be swell if you wrote a response here. I don't need a freebie or anything, just an acknowledgment that this experience was not representative of how you'd like to treat your customers. It'd go a long way to earning our business back. And we WOULD like to come back, as your food is pretty darn good.