Isabel Sousa
Google
A beautiful restaurant with potential. It seems to be lacking staff and coordination. I went at a peak hour when every table was full, though I didn't have to wait to be seated. It did, however, take a while before any waiter noticed I had been assigned a table to introduce themselves. It's terrible to sit at a table ignored waiting to know which waiter is assigned to your section.
The staff were clearly over capacity with the full restaurant. You could sense the panic from the staff trying to keep up with the mountain of orders. The linen napkins ran out, stacks of dirty plates were visibly accumulating in the kitchen preparation area, and the bartender was frantically going around the restaurant trying to recover glasses for the drinks he needed to prepare. My rice arrived with a piece crab shell in it, even though I didn't order crab. Good thing I'm only allergic to shrimp, but I warned the waiter that this type of cross-contamination can be very dangerous for some customers. In the caos of their peak hour, the open kitchen format exposed the restaurant to the staff's frustration with one another, yelling at and scolding each other with disrespect. It greatly disturbs the intended ambiance of the restaurant to see staff mistreating and belittling each other in front of all the customers. It's truly sad. I tried to order a second glass of wine to cope, and it never came.
I'm sure this is a wonderful restaurant when it isn't full, because they clearly cannot manage full capacity. I do wish them well as they work to increase their capacity and provide additional training to their personnel.
