I've visited Dollies at least two dozen times over the past decade. Things have changed, and not for the better.
Short version: Inferior product, bad service, deceptive charging.
Longer version: I've been here many times, as I said. During my last trip, shortly after the Lahaina fire, not much had changed at Dollies; good food, good service, and pleasant ambiance despite the fire.
This time, things were very different. The ambiance of a sports bar that continues to be a sports bar didn't change much. But that's about the best thing I can say about this time around.
Firstly, the food. They no longer offer a thin crust option. Seems odd to me that they'd get rid of thin crust. Obviously, a thin crust should cost less to produce than a regular crust. But whatever, not the end of the world. However, this time there was also markedly less cheese and noticeably smaller portions of toppings. And I don't know quite how to articulate it, but the meat (or cheese, or I'm not sure what exactly) tasted old. And note: this is eating in the restaurant, not delivery.
But even more concerning to me was the service. We went twice this trip. Would have been at least one more visit this trip, but for the service...
We are four adults and one seven year old.
First time in, dinner on a Friday. We had a server I've seen many times before. No complaints there - she did a great job, same as my previous experiences, all good there. I was slightly disappointed about the quality of the food; but Lahaina has been through a lot recently, so it seemed totally understandable to me.
Second time in: lunch time mid-week. Not very busy, many empty tables. We sit down, again four adults and one child. Our server was a guy I hadn't seen before. He was a bit slow with everything; from dropping off menus and water, to taking our order, to refilling drinks. But he appeared to also be the bartender, so I was willing to let that slide.
We had our meal, and asked for the check. He brought it over and surprisingly I noticed we had been charged an 18.5% "large party" fee. He did not say anything about this at any point prior to delivering the check. I've never had a "large party" charge assessed at Dollies before, nor have I ever had a "large party" fee assessed at any other restaurant for four adults and one child. Not even on our first visit two days before did our waitress assess that charge. And honestly, I don't even really care about the charge itself - there are enough people that tip little or nothing that I'd really prefer that every restaurant charge such a fee... but I find it disturbing that he didn't mention it at all.
I went to mention it to him. I wasn't trying to get the charge removed or anything like that. I just wanted to make sure he knew that his tip would have been higher if he didn't assign the charge, or at least had he notified us that he would be charging it. I normally start at 20% of the total bill, that's after taxes have been applied. So definitely more than 18.5% before taxes.
When I went to say this to him, he was engaged in conversation with another clearly unhappy patron. We made eye contact more than once. He absolutely knew, or should have known if he is anywhere near a good server, that I was waiting to speak with him. When he concluded his conversation with the other patron, he turned his back to me and quickly made busy cleaning off a table (back to me the whole time). Again, many empty tables so really not a pressing matter.
I ran out of patience and approached him while he was cleaning. I told him that I was disappointed to see that he had assessed the "large party" fee (again four adults and one child) without mentioning to us that he was doing so. I told him he would have gotten a better tip if he had said something about it. He acted like I was a jerk for pointing this out. He said that the menu notes a 18.5% surcharge for parties of 5 or more (which is in small print as an asterisk on the back page) and he went back to cleaning and clearly didn't care what else I had to say, so we left.
Again, he would have gotten a higher tip if he had simply said he was applying this charge. To me, it's not about the cost, it's about transparency.
If it was just one thing or another, I wouldn't be writing this review. But there were multiple disappointments. I've never had that sort of interaction with anyone at Dollies before. It was clear he wasn't interested in a customer's opinion. Repeat business seems not to matter anymore, I guess.
If I hadn't noticed the charge, he would have gotten my usual 20+% on top of the 18.5% he did not mention.
I understand Dollies is under new ownership. Maybe this was a result of that. Regardless, to potential patrons as well as current ownership: this is unacceptable. read more