Jasmine B.
Yelp
I came to Waterside with some visiting family on the afternoon of the Jazz festival.
When we got to the table is when everything went downhill. We were seated at a table covered in crumbs. I had to use my personal stash of Wet Ones to clean it off before I felt comfortable enough to sit down. I never fully relaxed, though, because the floor under the table was noticeably dirty, too. It was also sticky. In my experience, a dirty floor usually a sign of the service I'm about to receive, so I wasn't excited at all. The hostess handed us menus, then left. I opened my menu and it was dirty, too, with broccoli and cheese pressed between the pages like a rare butterfly collection.
Our waitress came over, dropped waters at our table, and said that she would give us some time to look at the menu. She left before we could say anything. I was a little confused because when I had visited once before I didn't remember receiving waters that I didn't order, so I don't know if that's a new thing or a testament to the service from the time before. We looked at the menus (around the broccoli display, of course) and we were ready to order about 5 minutes after she left. At the 10 minute mark, I was looking around for our server. At the fifteen minute mark, the table that was seated exactly one minute before us (we had literally followed them into the restaurant. They had a different server.) received their food. They received their food before we even got our drink orders in.
After almost 20 minutes, our server appears to take our orders. I order a Sprite, an American burger with bacon and no pickles, chicken fingers for my son, and spinach artichoke dip for the table. My party orders. The waitress doesn't write anything down. She says, "Let me repeat your order and make sure I've got it right."
She did not have it right. She repeats my order but instead of pickles, she omits onions. I correct her. She proceeds to get other orders wrong at the table as well.
The kitchen and its runners are pretty efficient; soon after we order, the appetizer comes out. The runner sits down our spinach artichoke dip and asks where to put the creamy Parmesan dip. I look around the table because I don't remember anyone ordering that. No one claims it. Just as I thought. I let him know that we never asked for that and the runner apologizes and excuses himself.
The spinach artichoke dip is delicious. Even the small children in our party enjoyed it.
About 10 to 15 minutes later, our food arrives. My burger comes with pickles despite my best efforts. My cousin's burger is missing something. His girlfriend is visibly displeased about her food too. The runner (he was literally the best part of this service) offers to take it back, but at this point, it's been almost an hour since we were seated. We just want to eat and leave. I pulled off the pickles myself.
The waitress finally checks on us to ask how our food was. It's been ten minutes. Any grievances we had were swallowed with our meals.
My cousin's girlfriend does speak up to clarify that she wanted Parmesan cheese sprinkles on her fries, not the order of Parmesan fries she received. She explains it was her fault for not being clear, but she just wanted the waitress to know. She also says that she never received the barbecue sauce she ordered on her food.
To our waitress's credit, she did try to rectify this by bringing a small cup of barbecue sauce and a bowl of Parmesan cheese, but it was too late. The sauce was too cold to put on her now lukewarm sandwich and the fries were just about gone, so there was nowhere to put the cheese.
Our waitress disappears for another 20 minutes after that. We've been here for over 1.5 hours at this point, so it's easy to figure out her hiding spots. This time, she's at the cash register by the bar, answering a text on her phone. We wait patiently for her to finish her phone conversation and walk to the door to once again serve the tables that deserve it (that doesn't include us).
I flag her down before she could get too far and ask for our checks and to-go boxes for my son's meal. She goes to get them. I tell my party of have their payment ready so we can give it to her as soon as she returns so we can leave.
This was the fastest part of the service. We received our checks about two minutes after requesting them, but she leaves before we can hand her payment. Great. We're stuck in purgatory for even longer. It's a blessing and a curse, because the extra time gives us a chance to look over our receipts. After the worst service of our lives, we're each charged a venue fee?? It's a small fee, but what is it for? Why are we charged extra for sitting in the restaurant? Where else would we eat the restaurant's food? The "venue" wasn't even clean!
We never receive the to-go box, so I go to the kitchen myself to request one. I box up my own food, give the empty plate to the friendly staff back there, and we leave. We won't be back.
