I don't normally leave reviews this detailed, and I want to start by saying the food at The Juicy…read moreCrab Gastonia is usually very good. We've eaten here before and continue coming back because we genuinely enjoy the food. Even tonight, our food was good. Unfortunately, the service and overall organization of the restaurant were unacceptable. We arrived around 9 PM and were told by two different servers that someone would be with us "in a second." We were seated around 9:11, but then continued waiting without much acknowledgment. Around 9:25, the person who appeared to be the manager finally came over and took our order after we had already watched the bartender ask them several minutes earlier to assist us. As we sat there, it became obvious just how overwhelmed the restaurant was. There appeared to be only four active servers, each handling around nine tables, most of which were four-tops. At that point, I don't think it's fair to simply blame the servers. Trying to provide attentive service to potentially 30+ guests each is an unreasonable workload. We could clearly hear other tables complaining about the service as well. We also watched finished drinks sit on the bar instead of being run to customers. Some sat long enough that they eventually had to be remade, creating even more work for an already overwhelmed bar and making customers wait even longer. The bartender deserves specific recognition because he was clearly doing everything he could. In addition to making drinks for the restaurant, he was covering several tables and eventually ours as well. He brought our food out around 9:38-9:46 and was literally out of breath from running around. He was not the problem here.
We also watched another couple come in and wait for approximately 20 minutes. Eventually, they went and sat themselves at the bar, presumably hoping someone would finally acknowledge them. They still weren't helped and ultimately got up and walked out.
We finally received our check around 10:30 PM, and I asked the bartender if they were short-staffed because it was obvious this wasn't a normal situation. We were told approximately five employees had called out that night and two kitchen employees had recently quit. From what we could see, the person who appeared to be the manager was also helping cover the back of house while the kitchen was being slammed with dine-in, to-go, and DoorDash orders. Knowing all of that actually made me more sympathetic toward the employees working that night. This didn't look like a restaurant full of people who simply didn't care. It looked like a handful of employees being asked to handle more than they could realistically keep up with.
However, understanding why the restaurant was struggling doesn't make the experience acceptable.
My biggest issue is that the restaurant continued accepting and seating customers despite the staff already being completely overwhelmed. If four servers are each carrying around nine tables and customers already inside aren't being properly acknowledged, it's time to slow down seating, put people on a wait, close a section, or at the very least warn incoming customers that service is going to be significantly delayed. Had someone simply told us at 9pm "We've had several call-outs tonight and we're extremely backed up, so service is going to take longer than normal," I would have been much more understanding. Instead, we were told someone would be with us "in a second" and had to figure out for ourselves what was happening.
There is a difference between bad service because employees don't care and bad service because employees have been given an impossible workload. Tonight appeared to be the latter, which is why I don't want this review to come across as attacking the servers who were clearly struggling to keep up.
At the same time, customers shouldn't be left wondering if anyone is going to acknowledge them, drinks shouldn't be sitting until they need to be remade, and people shouldn't be able to wait 20 minutes, move themselves to the bar, still receive no service, and eventually leave. The frustrating part is that our food was still good, as it usually is. That's why we've continued coming back, and it's what makes tonight so disappointing. The bartender also deserves credit for how hard he was working under the circumstances. I genuinely hope this was just an exceptionally bad night. Being severely short-staffed happens, but when it does, the restaurant needs to adjust the amount of business it accepts and communicate honestly with customers. Tonight's situation was unfair to the customers and, frankly, unfair to the employees who actually showed up and were trying to keep the place running.
