Dr. Meteor S.
Yelp
I had great expectations for Long John's after a day of skiing at Silverstar. My companion and I both ordered their dinner size salad, which sounded fantastic, but the nuts were rancid. R.a.n.c.i.d. Gross. Informed our waitress who was apologetic and brought us two new salads 20 minutes later. Unfortunately, that 20 minutes went by painfully slowly not least because the table next to us was playing penny shots - imagine the sound of coins pinging off glass as your primary dinner music along with drunken swearing and laughter. Hey - it's a pub! Anyway, by the time our second salads - hold the rancid nuts, please! - arrived, the smell of cigarette smoke had enveloped our table. At first I thought it was the penny pinging drunks at the table next to us, and, since I'm allergic to cigarette smoke, I immediately informed our waitress, whose underwhelming response coupled with a visible eye roll communicated that in her mind we had become "old fart complainers." We're not, actually. Is it really unreasonable to expect an entree salad not to have rancid nuts on it, or that one should be able to eat and drink in a smoke free (by law) establishment without choking on cigarette smoke? (That's a rhetorical question, obviously). As it turns out, the cigarette smoke comes in through the back door, where staff go out to smoke directly beside the restaurant. When our bill came, we were astounded that given the fiasco supper had become, our waitress didn't comp us anything. Not surprising given that by then in the evening, she was giving us her most boorish service - not even bothering to try to hide her disdain for the "unreasonable" customers we are. The bill for this lovely evening? $60 before tip. That's 2 glasses of cheap wine and 2 salads. When my companion complained to the manager/bartender on duty, he was told "Yeah, I heard about that [the rancid nuts]. That's really strange because we don't send out food like that." [Translation: We don't believe you, you're obviously just trying to get a free salad.] The manager/bartender went on to deny the cigarette smoke: "I don't smell anything. This is a non-smoking restaurant." Just as he was saying this, the back door opened and a staff member came in from outdoors, pulling in a waft of strong cigarette smoke with her. In the end, he comped one of our salads, but seriously, people, should it be a haggle? What ever happened to customer service? Or maybe at a place like Silverstar management relies on a steady turnaround of international customers? We're locally based and we'll never be back. And we'll be telling this story to all of friends who visit and/or regularly hit the slopes at Silverstar. Go to the Den - great food, great service, great prices on drinks. Long John's is the pits.