Bruce F.
Yelp
As regular visitors to Ritz Carlton's Wyld and its other dining venues, my party and I were disappointed with the rude treatment we received by the host last night at Wyld. Our poor experience did not end with the host, as the miscues kept coming, including having to send back a well-done steak ordered medium. I hate dining alone, when everyone else is done!
Wyld fell so short of my expectation last evening, I'm uncertain about ever returning to Ritz Carlton Bachelor Gulch again--for anything--lodging, dining, or spa. Management was simply AWOL!
We arrived on time for our 7:00p seating at Wyld last night and were shown to a table not in the dining room, but in the breakfast overflow area where they set up the breakfast buffet next to the kitchen--not where dinner guests are seated--used when they are unable to seat guests outdoors. This space has all the ambience of the waiting area at the DMV--except it's uncomfortably hot--next to the kitchen, and the lighting fixtures look (and work) like heat lamps making this area impossibly HOT and brightly lit. We felt like the ham under the warming lamps at the all-you-can-eat buffet.
By contrast, the dining room is beautiful, decorated in soft, dark calming tones, mood lighting, carpeting to dampen the noise, and windows through which the ski mountain and patio create a focal point.
Naturally, Wyld has to make adjustments for weather. When we were shown to a table adjacent to the kitchen in the breakfast room, I politely requested another table. Many tables were available in the real dining room. Why are we being seated in a space more suitable for a bagel and orange juice with the kids at 7:00a? We are here to spend $1,000+ for a quiet dinner for four adults at 7:00p.
I was informed ours was the ONLY available table by a host who was completely untrained, insisting there were no other options for us than a booth in the corner of the breakfast kiddie area) and that none of the available tables in the dining room were available TO US. (Wait for it--those tables are reserved for OTHER guests).
I walked into the mostly empty dining room to take note of all the many scattered empty tables. The host spotted me observing the situation in the dining room when she approached me and politely again informed me there were no tables there available to me.
That's when I asked her about the empty four top in the center of the dining room. She replied that table was reserved, but she could seat my party of four at a nearby long table set for 8. Oh?
Digressing, My reservation for a party of four at 7:00p was secured by a non-refundable deposit. Not content to spend $1,000+ to dine in an area resembling a fast-food restaurant lobby or at a table for 8, I left and requested if the host could find us a table at Sakaba (the sushi restaurant) down the hall where we were recently treated to great experience.
I was told "no" - that's it. One word. Apparently, the only vocabulary word that management teaches its staff at Wyld: No, you may not be seated with the adults in the dining room. No, I can provide you no seating in our dining room. No, the empty four top is not for you--it's reserved.
Really? It's reserved? We now reserve specific tables for specific guests? Specific guests who aren't even in the restaurant yet while I'm on time and have a paid reservation for four? I calmly asked if we will be dining with a head of state? royalty? maybe a famous athlete reserved that four top. I couldn't help but to insinuate "isn't my reservation as high a priority as the person's reservation who isn't here yet? Maybe that party would enjoy dining at the kiddie table where I have my coffee in the morning--you don't know till you ask them!
Flustered, the host excused herself. A few moments and ten minutes too late, a supervisor in a bad mood approached and coldly informed me my party was welcome to the four top.
Inexcusably poor execution by kitchen, by host, and the absentee management content to leave inexperienced staff to their own devices. D-