One stars are tough for me to dish out honestly, but last night was a deserving of one.
A few friends and I had 6:30 reservations, which we were seated slightly early, leaving us all excited for a wonderful dinner (During Sonoma County Restaurant Week). No corkage if you bring a Wilson owned winery bottle with you, which is a nice touch. The menu is pretty straight forward, but very much geared towards meat eaters versus vegetarians and or vegans. If you are in the latter category, you have a choice of a few apps, a panini, or salad, which one guest was not too thrilled with. Our overall order was taken fairly quickly and our host was very nice and helpful when it came to suggestions.
So where did it fall apart? Let's start with the order. Two sandwiches with cauliflower and hummus. Our other friends ordered the Sonoma County Restaurant Week special, which was a chicory salad first course, a pork dish on the second course, and to finish bread pudding. 45 minutes in, we started to wonder where their first course was, so we asked politely, which we got a response of "It's coming right out". Sure enough it came out, but they received what they thought was a butternut squash soup. Confused, so we asked, which we were informed they were having issues and were likely short on the salad. I guess it would of been nice to let us know ahead of time, oh well not a huge issue. Two gentleman came in about 25 minutes after us and ordered the same thing next to us (The three course that is). Right after we got our soup, they were given the two salads....At this point things only got worse. We are now at an hour and 15 minutes, two of us starving, the other staring at their empty soup dish. The table again next to us got their second course of pork. We figured there was an issue in the back as many other tables did not look thrilled. We flagged our waitress and were told "It's coming right out". We politely waited another 20 minutes, sipping on a bottle of wine that had been opened over an hour ago. At this point we were ready to leave, seeing our frustration, our waitress again mentioned "It's coming right out, thank you for your patience". We had no patience at this point since the table next to us was finishing their meal and we had no second course or mains for the other two at the table anywhere to be seen. We confronted the server and politely asked for them to cancel the food as we were willing to just pay for the soup and leave. The manager had now intervened, who was very kind, apologizing for everything, but I am not sure she was really aware of the situation as she comped our soups, but wanted us to pay for the bottle of wine...that we brought to the restaurant (20% off offered). I don't blame her, but it makes me wonder what information our host provided her before the interaction. They tried to make it right by telling us they could have it ready in five minutes in to go boxes, but what good is that if we have no place to eat it.
The final answer as to why our food never arrived is one of the three chefs quit that morning and short staffed due to it. I understand, but their were no more than 30 or so guests and others who were arriving after were getting their food. So to me that shows an issue both front and in the back of the house to be honest. This review is not meant to barrage this establishment and tell everyone how terrible it is, but more so for the owner and or manager to use as constructive criticism to improve their methods of operation.
I sadly will not be back though since I am one of several reviewers who have experienced the same issue. read more