Stefanie D.
Yelp
I don't know if my experience at Postino was a weird one off based on the reviews here, but a friend and I went last night at 7:15 and the visit was terrible- for many reasons, but the number one reason was the service.
I'll cover the food quickly because honestly- not much to talk about. We got the mushroom fondue which is actually really good. Except they give you a big deep cup of it and 4 measly strips of bread to dip in. Those barely scooped like a third of the cup. And when they OFFER you more bread- they upcharge you TWO DOLLARS FOR THREE LITTLE STRIPS!! Nothing aggravates me more than when restaurants offer patrons something, then charge them without notating "that's a small upcharge, is that okay?". We then split the italian beef panini. It was a couple pieces of unseasoned beef, non melted cheese, and plain bread with a cup of au jus. Nothing was hot, melted, or toasted.
When we were sat, we were sat indoors in the big dining room, at a two top that was in the far front corner, against the wall that's glass that I think can be raised in nice weather. Apparently, this table is in a weird blind spot vortex of the dining room that no Postino worker can see. It's like we were invisible. The dining room was about 40% full and it appeared that only one blond woman was working the whole room. So we sat. and waited. and waited. and after about 10-15 mins she greeted us and informed us this is a service team model- meaning, anyone essentially could help us aka basically everyone is your waiter. Which is fine....if there was more than one server. The dining room was beginning to fill up at this point, and we ordered drinks and she took off. Someone else, the first person I had seen besides her working the room, dropped off our drinks and ran off so fast I had only gotten the words "we're read-" of we are ready to order out before they were long gone. So we sat. And in that time watched the original blond server go to every table. Multiple times. Refused to look in our corner, walk near, or respond to the unbreaking eye contact I was trying ot make with her. In this time, th table three tables down got sat, got drinks and HAD FOOD and we hadn;t had anyone to take our order. I was about to get up when finally i flagged her down and she was almost surprised we wanted to order food? (when we had told her already we wanted to get a board). So we order. THe food comes out quickly, so okay, that's nice. And that was it. Drinks were empty. Water was empty. No one checked back, or asked for refills. When she finally came back at the end of the meal she asked if we wanted more bread for the queso and we said yes and she took off. And we sat. TWENTY ONE MINUTES LATER I had absolutely had it and I wanted the check. I had to get up and walk to the bar where the other gentleman who appeared to be a server was standing there, yucking it up with the bartender. It was only after he got our check that our bread arrived- WITH AN UPCHARGE we were uniformed of when she offered us more bread! To top it off, we were there as part of a yelp special, and the guy didnt show us a copy of the check and just rang my card (I was so pissed I wasn't listening to the total) and then we realized they had not removed the proper items from our bill so thank goodness we had asked for a box- it forced him to return to the table so I could get a credit back to my card.
Absolutely abysmal. Maybe this team model works elsewhere, but I find when everyone owns everything, essentially, no one owns anything. That coupled with sticking us in a bizarre invisible table equalled some of the worst service ever. She wasn't even friendly! There are far, FAR too many places in this city to want to return to that treatment. WE were there for 2 hours for NO REASON.
It's worth noting I have been to the south location and had a very pleasant experience. But this one isn't it- esp when the food can't justify the experience.
