Steven H.
Yelp
I'll start with how excited I was to make this reservation for my family over our Christmas vacation. I call and ask for a great table for 6 at 7pm on Christmas Day. They say they're not open Christmas Day, but can accommodate us for Christmas Eve. Great, I'll take it. Reservation set. Anticipation begins.
We show up and I check in my family and we're a little early. Hostess says the group ahead is finishing up but we can grab a drink at the bar while we wait. No worries, we all grab a drink and chit-chat at the bar.
Well, 7pm rolls around and we've all finished our first drink and our table is still not ready yet. Alright fine, we'll grab another drink. Clearly the table wasn't "finishing up", but no big deal. We finish our second drink around 7:30pm and awkwardly hang around longer till 7:45. 45 minutes past the time I called a month in advance to reserve. Not off to a great start.
We all sit down and the server greets us, explains the specials, and gets some drinks for those who need a refresher. He mentions he has one dish left of the daily fish - so I quickly say I'll take it- and just my luck, it's reserved for me. He then comes back a little while later to deliver our drinks and take our orders. We order a couple of the specials that are being shared between my parents and my sister and her husband; my wife orders a filet mignon, and I'm excited I've got my fish. This all happens and the time is just past 8pm.
Here's where everything spirals - and where this restaurant gets my worst recommendation and review I've ever given. We wait another 30 minutes for our appetizers to come out, and we're going on another 30 before I decide to have a chat with the manager. She mentions "she'll take care of it" and goes back to the kitchen. I sit back down and she comes back from the kitchen and says they're working on it and asks if she can accommodate us and get us anything to drink. We just want our food. They mention they can bring bread ( THEY'VE HAD BREAD THIS WHOLE TIME?!). This next part is important...When our waiter brings the bread, he CLEARLY, AND FOR THE WHOLE TABLE TO HEAR, tells my father that dinner will be 50% off tonight for us having to wait so long. Well we go on waiting another 45 minutes. It's now just before 10pm, before we finally are served.
Meanwhile, our waiter DOES NOT EVER COME BACK TO OUR TABLE. So we head up to the hostess stand and ask for our check after waiting even longer at our table. We all head to the valet/taxi area and leave my father to pick up the check (he insisted). Well, we wait about 10 minutes and he's still not with us...what is going on with this place!?!?
My mom goes to collect him, but comes back to our group saying THEY HAVE CHARGED US FULL PRICE AND REFUSE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE 50% OFF. We return and the waiter is now behind the hostess stand, standing next to the hostess and flatly lying to my father about what he said. The manager is hiding next to the bar, saying she has to believe what her waiter has told her, and the waiter is saying that HE IS THE MANAGER. What??
We refuse to pay the bill our of principle and how utterly terrible our service was all night - especially when we were told we would be receiving this discount (many of us were ready to give up after the bread came and before dinner because it seems very clear they hadn't even started cooking our food yet). We're in a standoff with the waiter not budging...AND THEN HE CALLS THE POLICE. To avoid any prolonged embarrassment we now feel having the police being called on us (we are not unruly, we are not aggressive, and with no justification for this) we decide to leave this restaurant lead by the worst management and staff I've ever dealt with- and go home.
To me, the only scenario I can think of that makes minimal sense is that the waiter never cleared this "discount" wIth management OR management told him it would come out of his own pocket to cover the cost. Either way, it's no excuse for how terrible an encounter we had and with so much promise from the beginning.
I could not more highly recommend you NOT dine with this establishment as they clearly have an attitude problem and poor management/leadership at the helm. Spend your money at a restaurant with more integrity, and not one so disingenuous and lacking quality service.
I would also encourage the owner to contact me directly if they would like to explain their reasoning into why something like this could ever happen at their restaurant.