I made reservations for Friday, 8/21, on Wednesday, 8/19. This led to the first issue. When making reservations through OpenTable (OT), you are provided with two options: the lounge or the main dining area. Most people will likely want to sit near the LED boards that display the clouds and be closer to the entertainment. However, OT does not indicate which seating area is which, so I booked the lounge side since there were multiple reservations available for both areas.
On 8/20, I sent Cielo a message through OT requesting to be seated on whichever side had the LED boards and entertainment--no response. I sent another message the morning of 8/21--again, no response.
We left an hour and 15 minutes early to travel up I-95 for a trip that would ordinarily take about 55 minutes to an hour. Unfortunately, traffic does what traffic does on I-95, and the GPS eventually estimated the trip at 1 hour and 47 minutes, putting us there around 6:57 PM for a 6:30 reservation.
I attempted to call the restaurant twice at 5:18 PM. Both calls went straight to voicemail, where I heard a message stating that the voicemail box had not yet been set up. Since I had also received no response through OT, I proceeded to DM them on Instagram--again, no response.
We finally arrived at the restaurant around 7:10 PM after parking and walking over. The hostess greeted us and explained that our table had been released because we missed the reservation. To be clear, that made perfect sense. However, as she continued, she stated that the table had been released because they had not heard from us. I explained that I had called twice and sent them a DM on Instagram well in advance, but received no response.
To speed the story up, we were initially seated on the side without the LED boards and entertainment. When our server arrived, we explained that there were still reservations showing as available on the other side and that we would prefer to sit there. She suggested that we try reserving the next available time on that side. At 7:25 PM, we booked a 7:30 reservation. The same hostess came over and explained that there had been a glitch in the system that allowed us to book it and that they were unable to separate a table, or something along those lines, but said she would see what she could do.
Ultimately, they moved us to the side we wanted, where there were multiple tables available, including both two-person and four-person-plus tables, and that was the end of the follow-up. The hostess was never rude; she was friendly and did her best to explain the situation. However, there was still no explanation as to why my multiple attempts to contact the restaurant had gone unanswered, which could have prevented much of what we experienced.
Everyone we encountered was nice and friendly, including our server. The ambiance and entertainment were also very nice. However, the overall experience, lack of communication, long wait times for drinks and food, and average-tasting food--although the plating was nice--brought the overall score down considerably.
There is a lot of room for improvement across the board. If those improvements are made, Cielo could become a real gem in the Arlington area. read more