Fred H.
Yelp
Extremely disappointed and have been a patron and big fan since the restaurant's opening in 2003. Gave them a great Yelp review in 2013. This time, for my daughter's 31st birthday, it was angering. Called earlier in the day about bringing a small cake from a local bakery. "Not a problem." Arrive for dinner and tried to subtly hand off the cake to the hostess to give to the waiter. She says we'll have to talk to the waiter and doesn't take it. We are seated and the waiter comes to nicely welcome us and get drink orders. I spoke with him privately after to tell him about the cake and he says, "You'll need to speak with the manager, as they cannot serve food from outside the restaurant." The manager arrives at the table 5 minutes later and elaborately explains to us all that "The birthday cake shouldn't be a problem. We usually don't serve food from outside the restaurant. But for you we will do it, but we will need to charge you $1 per slice as a service charge." Money made the risk of outside food, and their policy, melt away. The $1 wasn't a game changer for me but so much for the birthday surprise... My daughter and family were stunned. Next came the steaks my daughter and wife ordered medium but arrived rare. Sent them back, and the manager came to apologize and explain they are preparing new steaks. We have table manners, so we wait to eat our food until everything arrives, and we wait, and we wait... and finally the new steaks arrive, so we all try to move on and enjoy what we have, warm as it may be. Now I certainly understand that mistakes can be made (not knowing how to cook a medium steak, seriously?) and my policy is to wait to see how the restaurant handles the mistake before passing judgement. As we all know the handling usually comes in the form of something being offered as complimentary, entrée(s), drink(s), appetizer(s), bread & butter, $1-O-Slice fee, all which we ordered. Not this evening. We were charged for everything. Nothing offered. Nada. Nil. Zero. Zilch. I know, the restaurant isn't required to do anything but, in my opinion, this is a lesson for future restaurant managers on poor decision making, poor service, and how to miss the chance to recover from a mistake.