Matthew B.
Yelp
Castile has been a restaurant that has gone through good and bad over the few years it has been open. After a lengthy hiatus, wife and I have begun to return to dine and until this evening have had recent pleasant experiences. Unfortunately, tonight takes us back to the inconsistency and overpriced experiences that made us stop going in the past.
To be perfectly transparent, we joined a paid discount program called Club Savor which promises a discount on food and drinks, which this restaurant is a part of. The guarantee is that the food is exactly the same in portion and prep as if we were not part of the program.
Tonight we dined at the bar, and I ordered the Skirt steak and fries, which I have enjoyed quite a lot on recent visits, before joining CS. Coincidentally, the person sitting next to me (different party) ordered the same thing. His meal came first and looked fantastic. When my meal came, however, it was on a different sized plate, much smaller portion, and wasn't really comparable in any way to my neighbor's meal. I questioned the bartender wondering if we'd ordered the same thing, which she confirmed. I wish I'd taken pictures, it was like the expectation vs reality pics you see often.
So that was problem one -- was it misinformation from Club Savor or the restaurant cheating CS members when it shouldn't? I don't know, but it was clear there were two different levels of meal, and I can't be sure who is the dishonest party.
The second problem, more related to club savor, is that using the program cancels any other discounts. The Castile happy hour is fairly generous, and we would have saved more by simply ordering the happy hour drinks, apps, etc. instead of getting the CS discount. To the restaurant's credit, they did a one time discount since we didn't know that was the policy which we appreciated.
All in all the experience left us feeling a bit 'dirty' and no one wants a bad experience coupled with a billing issue at the end. We've canceled club savor, and aren't sure we will return to Castile -- if my neighbor's meal and mine were supposed to be the same then there are still significant consistency issues in a restaurant that is constantly still changing its menu and preparations. The continued problems are evident by the empty restaurant on a Saturday night, and its too bad for such a lovely space.