Angela R.
Yelp
Decided to start the New Year (6:30 pm reservation) with a nice meal from The Chef's Table. We have dined here numerous times and the last couple visits haven't been the best. Last night was a HUGE disappointment. I was excited to spend one on one time with my daughter catching up after the busy holiday. Instead our attention was directed at trying to locate our waiter almost our entire visit. He started out great and greeted us as well as explained the specials of the day but after our water was delivered, he literally vanished and when we would see him, it was not at our table. We ordered the Spin your Dip for appetizer and asked for extra toasted bread for the dip. When the dip arrived, it came with one portion of the toasted bread. We assumed the extra bread was coming behind the appetizer. Nope. Pretty much after that, we sat there watching our server touch his other tables (the restaurant was NOT busy) and completely avoid ours. A female server walked by and asked if we needed more bread for the appetizer and I informed her that we originally ordered extra but never received it. She returned with a small side of bread then walked away. We were confident our server would see that we were almost done with the appetizer and come take our order, NOPE. We sat there for some time just looking at each other wide eyed and dumbfounded. A few minutes went by and another female server came by to refill our water. I told her that we are ready to order but our waiter had not been by since he initially greeted us. She offered to take our order. My daughter ordered the 8 oz filet with hugenot sauce requested medium well. I ordered the beef pendurada and also requested medium well with a side wedge salad no bacon. The wedge salad arrived shortly as ordered but when our main course arrived, they also delivered a lobster mac and cheese which we never ordered (neither of us eat seafood so it was clearly a server error) we told the female server that we did not order the mac and cheese and she took it away. When I cut open my pendurada meat, the meat inside was all pink. It was clearly cooked to medium rare. My daughter's steak was cooked properly. So there I sat and watched my daughter eat her steak waiting for a server to come by so I could request them cook my pendurada to medium well. No server checked on us even though they walked by our table several times and witnessed that I was sitting there and not eating. Finally a female who I assume was the shift manager walked up to us and said to me, "you need the meat cooked longer?" I obliged and said I requested it medium well. She took it and stated she would bring a side of brussel sprouts on the house. When my entree came back, it was cooked to the proper temperature and I took a few bites of the brussel sprouts. My daughter was already finished with her entree so she watched me eat. Our original sever stopped by to see if the steak was in fact cooked medium well. He apologized for the error which I found was odd because he wasn't the server who took the order!
After I completed my entree our original server came by to clear our plates. I requested the bill, told him we were not interested in dessert. He delivered the bill. I was gifted a gift card by my employer which I presented to our server and told him the amount that was on it. I also gave him my credit card to apply any remaining balance. It took awhile for him to return with my check and he approached our table and said his manager needed to handle the gift card portion and she would bring us our receipts. She arrived a few minutes later and presented us with a dessert and apologized for the bad experience we had and promised next time we visit it will be perfect. Although the dessert gesture was appreciated, we were full and already made it clear to our server we did not want dessert. So we felt obligated to take a few bites.
I work in the food service industry. I am usually very patient and understanding when things go wrong but in this case. It was just bad service. Had it been busy or I could identify that our server was in the "weeds" I would probably not be writing this.
I feel that instead of offering us more food, the manager should have comp'ed our appetizer or at least given us the choice. I know she meant well, it just did not feel like we were really compensated fairly for the service neglect and server errors.
We will be taking a long break from The Chef's Table. Our last couple visits have not been to the standard I feel it should be, especially at the menu price point.
