Melissa R.
Yelp
The food is good. The portions are very small for the money paid. The scotch is delicious as are the cocktails. It's a great spot for drinks and the ambiance is dark and perfect for a scotch bar.
We went for my husband's birthday. All throughout the meal, I would've given this place 4 stars (drinks fab, food value for money not as fab) but then we get to the end of the night.
We are offered a taste of a certain kind of scotch, a favorite of the waiter. Cool! My husband and I have been to too many Michelin star places to count so we are used to this end of the night hospitality gesture. My husband pours, has one sip, and the second server swoops in and tells us it's a 2 ounce pour and we will be charged for it and whisks the bill away. We sit there so so confused.
We think that she or her serving partner see my very confused face so she *does* come over to explain that this gesture is pre-poured at the bar and the bottle is just to see. But here's the thing: my husband's glass did not have scotch in it. We really and truly did not see anything in the glass and so my husband had poured it himself, thinking that's what the bottle is for. But on our end of things, it's embarrassing to have even started drinking from the glass and then they swoop in to say they'll take the $50 charge off after seeing our reaction. But that's what happened - we paid $50 extra for something we didn't even want or need to save ourselves the embarrassment for my husband's birthday dinner.
We just can't figure it out -- was it just a misunderstanding (I.e. they actually had provided the taste and we somehow didn't notice or they accidentally gave us an empty glass and they didn't know it) or is this some kind of racket they have going with a bottle of scotch that was triple the price of a different 2 ounce pour we tried tonight? Also the fact that the second waiter was the one to confront us and do all the intervening when it was her colleague who had served the glass and bottle was so weird.
So, I would've given this place an enthusiastic four stars, but this incident made me want to give it one star. They technically did offer to take the charge off, which I'm sure in their minds feels like they handled the situation correctly. But the way they swooped in to immediately alter our bill and also not clarify that the taste was supposedly in the glass when they served it to my husband makes the whole experience feel quite shady. Maybe it was all just a $50 misunderstanding but it really didn't feel like it and I didn't want to cause an embarrassing fuss on my husband's birthday.
In the end, we hope others are aware. We won't be remembering this meal fondly, unfortunately, and it all happened in the last five minutes of the meal.