Justin S.
Yelp
My partner and I have been going to Picasso's together for a few years. The menu is nice, fairly consistent, and it's been good for a casual meal. Decent dinner and brunch options. My partner's vegan, so the range of options for her is especially helpful. In general, we've liked it.
That said, the service has never been especially impressive, and the training of waitstaff and bar staff seems subpar. We went to dinner this past weekend and sat at the bar. The restaurant wasn't particularly busy, though they did seem a bit short-staffed. It was one of our worst evenings at Picasso's to date.
It took nearly 10 minutes of sitting at a bar (with just two other people) before the bartender brought us water and took our order. We ordered two gin martinis. It took another fifteen minutes just to get a drink made, in part because the bartender seemed not especially skilled. (A manager later explained that he was pretty new.) Two managers hung around, adding more tasks to the bartender's list, so we watched our glasses sit there, waiting for the drinks to be made, while several other orders were processed for the thoughtless managers' own needs on the floor.
When the martinis finally came they weren't made with dry vermouth but another fortified wine (Cocchi Americano). The bartender didn't bother to tell us about the substitution; it's not clear that he understood why it might matter one way or another. (This isn't the first time badly trained bartenders have botched basic drinks here. The last time we were here and ordered a martini we got a glass full of ice and vermouth, with no gin.) It turned out that they were out of dry vermouth--which is fine, but ideally you'd tell your customer before making a substitution.
When my patner's vegan burger came out, it was mush. We pointed this out to the bartender, who asked the kitchen. The kitchen tried to say that was how their burgers are. But we've had these burgers before, and these were not even close to the same. This one had the consistency of soft cat food.
Eventually a manager came over to ask us about our evenings. We explained our various issues--service, drinks, meal. He said he was sorry but otherwise brushed them off and made excuses. When I noted the issues with bar service and that I was frustrated to see managers making things worse and not helping, he said that he "came from a corporate background" (not sure what that means, but doesn't sound like a defense to me) and that he can't do cocktails, so he couldn't help.
That wasn't the issue: the issue was that two managers watched a new staff member flounder and did nothing to help. And then, when we complained politely about the service and food, we were given pointless excuses. You don't have to know how to make drinks. You do have to know how to set up the order of operations at the bar and train your staff in it. Also, there are surely other ways to help an overwhelmed bartender than actually making the drinks yourself.
They comped the one terrible vegan burger, but we paid for the rest of our very late, poorly made drinks and food.
In the past, we have enjoyed stopping by both this restaurant and their adjoining bar next door. But the service is routinely miserable, the training inadequate, and the management basically nonexistent. I can't imagine going back to this shockingly mediocre restaurant again.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23598354/Picasso_Cafe_2.JPG "Picasso Cafe by Humankind Hospitality")
