Brenda C.
Yelp
My recent experience hosting a company holiday party at Maggiano's was, without a doubt, the worst restaurant experience I have ever encountered. The series of miscommunications, poor planning, and utterly unprofessional handling of our large party demonstrates a shocking disregard for customer service.
We meticulously planned this event in advance, speaking with multiple staff members on separate occasions to confirm that our anticipated group size could be easily accommodated. We were repeatedly assured that there would be no problem at all.
The week of the event, when we provided our final headcount, we were suddenly informed by a manager that our party size actually required a special banquet reservation. This requirement was never mentioned during our prior consultations. The manager promised to "accommodate" us despite this, assuring us she would personally train her staff to ensure situations like this wouldn't happen again.
Yesterday, the day of the event, the entire situation came to a head. We were enjoying dessert and in the middle of a White Elephant gift exchange when a staff member abruptly approached us and demanded we leave because we had exceeded a two-hour time limit.
We were NEVER informed of a time limit. Given we specified this was a company holiday get-together, a time limit should have been clearly communicated from the beginning.
The restaurant staff happily opened our wine bottles, charging a corkage fee for each, barely 30 minutes before kicking us out.
As we scrambled to gather our belongings and unfinished drinks, the staff immediately began clearing and cleaning the tables around us--a completely rude action.
The way this entire ordeal was managed is unbelievable. The fact that so many people from our company were there to witness this disorganized and disrespectful treatment, and the staff still did not seem to care, only solidified our belief that Maggiano's has no regard whatsoever for its customers or customer service.
Do not trust them with your large reservations or special events. We chose this restaurant for a festive holiday celebration, and they delivered nothing but stress, embarrassment, and a genuinely hostile dining environment.
I would recommend that management urgently review their internal communication, reservation procedures, and staff training protocols.