visited before and had the entire place to ourselves, we enjoyed the unique decor, an amalgam of curiosities, my son admiring a collection of porcelain kittens while i studied clean lined and loosely colored japanese framed illustrations.
food taken in such a colorful environment and shared with my son did not warrant much attention, i have little to say about it other than it was japanese inspired fare at a reasonable price
today i decided to visit again with my girlfriend, both of us excited to spend a quiet lunch together. we opened the door and were abruptly greeted with a sign exclaiming wait to be seated. we waited, at first lost in conversation and then waited watching the two women attending the few seated tables and then waited mumbling about all the open tables then waited in frustration and silence as the two women continued to ignore us.
suddenly behind us the door burst open and one of the women rushed over and asked the couple who walked in if they had called. they nodded and the waitress immediately brought them over to an open table without so much as acknowledging we had been standing there nearly twenty minutes. what made this especially frustrating is they do not take reservations.
with open tables they proceeded to take the walk-in's order, served them appetizers, refilled the few seated patron's waters, then bussed another table all while we quietly continued to wait.
another couple arrived and the four of us congregated in the tight space near the door. the longer we waited the more confused the new arrivals looked. i heard them asking each other is anyone going to seat us. despite having waited nearly a half hour i assured them they would get to us eventually.
after cleaning another table and a languorous chat between the two waitresses in the back one of them finally told us we could pick our seats.
excited to order and finally in a seat we soon realized the struggle to order would be as arduous as the one to sit down, after continuing to be ignored another 15 minutes after we were seated we discretely tried raising our hands for attention. the waitress looked at me and walked right by. she then proceeded to ask the couple who arrived nearly 20 minutes after we had if they were ready to order.
at this point we had enough and decided to leave. as a final indignity, the waitress smiled and thanked us for eating there!
it saddens me, not so much the rude way we were treated but by the thought at one point a lot of love, sweat and tears went in to opening this place. someone had the desire to make a welcoming, uniquely curated space for patrons to enjoy time away from home and all that joy and inspiration ended up here, today, with a staff without any regard for its inception, hospitality or its guests.
we walked in with anticipation and left feeling small having not been provided even a basic sense of acknowledgement.
it makes me wonder why these two women choose to work here? my only hope, they are able to find in themselves passion for their chosen profession and on a human level, recognize a good restaurant is defined as much by its welcome as its food. thankfully for us, many places know and live by that. read more