Danielle S.
Yelp
What a sour way to start the new year...
We called about a week ahead of time to book my birthday brunch celebration at Rita's. We specifically asked about whether they were offering a brunch buffet on January 1. The phone rep said "yes" it was a buffet brunch that day and proceeded to book our party of 8 for 11:30am. Well, guess what? We arrive 15 minutes early for our January 1 celebration at 11:15am to enjoy the breakfast buffet and the caustic server, Dora, in full iron curtain mode, curtly tells us that the buffet closes in five minutes (i.e. at 11:30am I guess, because we arrived 15 minutes early).
Completely blindsided because we booked at Rita's only *because* of that buffet, which we even asked about when we booked (the person on the phone was either not smart enough to realize the buffet closed at 11:30am after booking us at that *exact time* despite our asking about the buffet ahead of time OR, the restaurant arbitrarily decided to close it early w/o notifying customers). Caustic Dora didn't apologize, didn't even acknowledge that we had all gathered there for a birthday party... nothing. Just a sour and curt "no buffet for you" messaging while slapping down a boring lunch menu that you could basically get anywhere. Any other restaurant would've taken a moment to apologize or come up with a workaround due to the booking blunder of their staff. Nope. Nothing.
So, I myself walked to the buffet, with just 5 minutes time left and I grabbed two plates and got myself everything I would've wanted had I been given the proper time to enjoy the buffet. Dora got everyone drinks but me and then ignored me when she came back to the table to get other people's orders. I had to ask her for an iced tea. Another person in our party had a problem with their cocktail (which tasted funny) and Dora apparently went into iron curtain mode with them too. No apology, no offer to "get it right", just a curt "what do you want me to do?" response.
Anyway, for a $500 tab, Rita's was a thoroughly sour experience to start off 2024. As I said, the other food was the usual lunch fare, my family member had a problem with their cocktail. I was ignored by our server after asking about the buffet and taking the initiative to serve myself at the *still open* buffet at my birthday party where we were told there would be a new year's breakfast buffet for our whole party.
About 1 hour into the experience, Dora was suddenly attentive and "nice" to everyone. My guess is she heard one of us complain about her being sour/caustic to us on new year's day, but after getting off on the wrong foot, it didn't erase the disappointment from our collective memory.
I for one, won't be coming back. Horrible, rude service for the money, bumbling reservation staff who either royally f'd up when booking us at a time when the key feature of our family event (breakfast buffet) was actually going to be closed, or their arbitrarily decision to close it early.
*Also, regarding the buffet, Dora responded to someone else in my family that the buffet doesn't stay open past 12 on Sunday, and they responded back to her, "but it's Monday." Anyway... we'll gladly take our $500 breakfast somewhere else next time.
**Yes, I tried speaking to someone on site about our experience, and I waited and waited and waited and watched a manager talking to another worker about the day's receipts while I waited even longer... I finally realized no one really cared to hear the feedback and because they were waiting for me outside with the car idling, I finally left.