Christopher A.
Yelp
I'll start by saying I always would much rather have any business - not just restaurants - be honest with me and tell me if they can't provide for whatever it is I'm needing. Much better to say "no" and not disappoint with a "yes" that they can't deliver.
My wife and I stopped in last night, Friday night, during a "parents' night out" without our little one. We arrived at 6:40 p.m. - an hour and 20 minutes before our daughter had to be picked up. As several other parties were waiting, we asked about the wait and were told 20-30 minutes, which would give us potentially only 50 minutes for the meal service. We mentioned that we had a hard deadline of 8 p.m. and asked if we could get out of there in less than an hour once seated and were told "yes."
The good news was that they seated us in only about 15-20 minutes rather than the full 30. But then we waited a very long time, maybe another 15 minutes, before ever seeing a server or having even water brought. Because we reviewed the menu prior to getting our table we had already narrowed down our food choices, but had more than plenty of time to decide by the time our server came.
Upon ordering, we watched our available time to enjoy the meal quickly evaporate. Food finally arrived at 7:39 p.m. Now we would have to eat very rapidly to make it back to pick our little up. So, how about the food?
The good: my wife's Frisan Chicken Salad Sandwich and cup of Ginger Carrot Soup was delicious!
The not so good: I had been here maybe three other times, but had never yet tried the Dutch pancakes. So this time I opted for the savory "Aruba" with its unique mix of jerk-seasoned bakon, ham, rookwurst, peppers, pineapple, brandied raisins, banana, cheese. Having had no other Dutch food in my life besides my few visits to Van Gogh's, I have no frame of reference. But I assume the pancakes are authentic. If so, I'm not a fan of the kind of dough/batter in those. It's not a crepe and definitely not the bread-like pancakes Americans are used to. Perhaps it's like a very thick crepe that's not completely cooked? Or maybe a corn tortilla that's undercooked in texture (not flavor).
In any event, I proceeded to eat very quickly, but wasn't really tasting any of the three meats I remember from the menu. Having never had the dish, and not being used to Dutch food, I thought maybe they were just tiny little bits, so I kept eating, but started to dig around on the dish and literally couldn't see anything resembling meat. Because we were in such a hurry to get back on time, I had gulped about 1/2 of it when I finally called our server over to say I suspected they had forgotten the meat.
Her reaction, though friendly, immediately told me she had not been trained well in their menu to even know what each item should look like! That's a really bad mark for a server. It's one thing for servers to have not tried some menu items, but to not know enough about them to realize something is completely missing speaks to a lack of training by management AND to a lack of care by the server. I had to do a bit of convincing, using a previous Italian restaurant experience of missing chicken, to bolster my claim of the missing trio of meat, but she finally said she would go ask the kitchen.
She returned with a bowl full of the three-meat mixture, and then it was even MORE obvious that anyone working there should have immediately been able to tell the meat was missing! They were not tiny bits of meat at all, but diced pieces very easily seen had they been on the pancake. Wow.
While I'm very glad they brought the meat, honestly they didn't handle the issue like a top-notch establishment would. Given that 1/2 of my entree was literally missing half of what was supposed to be on it - not any of which was my fault - they should have at least offered to remake the entree for me (though we surely wouldn't have had time to wait). Or they could have offered to comp my meal or invite me back to try it again on the house, or . . . be creative if you want to have a return guest!
To simply offer the missing meat just before we asked for "to go" boxes with a light apology wasn't acceptable.
Overall experience was not stellar this time around.
I'm a big believer in tips still being for EXCEPTIONAL service, not just an expected add-on at any specific rate and NOT on tax (as the state doesn't ever help serve me in a restaurant). My leaving nearly 14% this time around was overly generous.
