Brent C.
Yelp
To whom it may concern;
I debated for a while about whether or not to write this review. In the spirit of full transparency, the person I'm about to mention might actually be one of the owners. I'm not sure if this will make a difference or if it'll just go unnoticed. Still, I thought that offering constructive feedback from someone who works in an organization with one of only six Forbes Triple Five-Star hotels in the U.S. might be helpful.
This restaurant uses OpenTable for reservations. I booked a table over a week in advance for four adults and mentioned in the notes that we'd have a baby in a stroller.
About four hours before our reservation on Mother's Day weekend, I received a call from a woman who I believe had the same last name as the restaurant. She spoke quickly and seemed a bit rushed. She had questions about the size of the stroller and mentioned that accommodating us might be challenging due to how busy they were expected to be that evening. However, she didn't offer an alternative time or any further instructions. We assumed she'd figure out a solution, given that the restaurant clearly didn't review their reservations until just hours before service.
At the Forbes Five-Star Steakhouse in my hotel, we conduct reservation audits a month in advance to catch any issues early and rarely need to reach out to guests--we handle most things in-house to avoid last-minute disruptions.
When we arrived at the restaurant, we were greeted by an older woman at the host stand. She seemed to size up the stroller with a look of surprise, almost like she couldn't believe we showed up--despite the reservation note a week in advance and the phone call just four hours before. She told us that a table she thought would work for us was still in the process of paying their bill, and that it should only be "a couple of minutes."
The most frustrating part of the entire experience was when she then proceeded to "educate" us on how we should be making reservations in the future. She insinuated that we somehow weren't clear-minded and that, since we were now a party of five (because of the stroller), we should always book for five people going forward. We were completely taken aback by her tone.
After waiting nearly 20 minutes to be seated, we watched her casually slurp soup at the host stand.
Finally, when we were seated, my sister-in-law was maneuvering the stroller to settle it by the table when the hostess interrupted, saying, "You'll have to put the stroller the other way, we have guests sitting at this table beside you soon."
For a $600 meal, the service was absolutely terrible, and we're unlikely to return. We're huge fans of Bistro 270 and Frank's, which have been much more accommodating to our family and my new niece. We believe that the combination of excellent food and service creates an experience of much higher quality. Plus, they use actual menus--not binders with plastic inserts.
Do better.
