Mark M.
Yelp
Myself and a friend decided to go to Clives after looking up local Fish Fries on line in the Rogers area.
We arrived about 5PM, I went in and asked how long of a wait for 2? she asked if we had reservations I said no. She then explained they seat only reservations 1st BUT it would be about a 30-45 minute wait. That I will get a text saying its a one hour and thirty minute wait, we should ignore that. They will text us when the table is ready.
I said perfect, we need to drop of some groceries in St Michael we will just return, so we returned at 5:35 we decided to go inside and wait.
We went inside and I said we were on standby for a table, she explained were not allowed to wait inside unless we have reservations? I said ok but our table should be ready in a few since its about 45 Minutes
THE SAME GIRL that told me 30-45 min then said with a tone "we are not allowed to tell you how long you will wait as we sit ONLY reservations 1st. I said I understood that BUT you told me before ignore the text it would be 30-45 Minutes.
So we decided to wait outside, at 6:05PM (over an hour waiting) while in car we called Clives to ask again and explained we are on the wait list, she said "We are not allowed to tell you how long the wait is, we ONLY seat reservations 1st"
At this point we left to get food elsewhere, at 7:01 exactly 2 hours I get a text while eating saying our table was ready, if we didnt want the table to text back "9" to be removed from wait list.
I of course ignored the text, so lets explain why Clives could be better:
1. Dont lie to clients and tell them it will be 30-45 Minutes and to "ignore the text"
2. Dont tell the clients 30-45 minutes to only be rude to them when we ask an hour into wait.
3. Dont make stupid rules of telling your staff to tell clients "we are not allowed to tell you a wait time" If we had known it would have been a 2 hour wait we would of been able to have dinner somewhere else at 5 rather then wait.
Both times I was in the Restaurant there we at least 5 tables open, and more people leaving them going in.
It is an Epic fail on Clives part to not seat paying customers, and treat them like would be paying customers.
Maybe they are doing so great they dont need the money? We ended up having a great dinner, and in the end I was happy NOT to spend money on poor service and rudeness.