I wrote the following e-mail to Don Jose's management, and have not heard back describing the experience:
Management,
As someone who worked in the restaurant scene for 10+ years, this is the first time I have taken time to complain about an experience I had while dining, as I am usually understanding of things that occur.
However, I had a completely unsatisfactory dinner at your establishment - one in which I was about to walk out after paying for the 1/2 served drink/appetizers while waiting an unreasonable amount of time for entrees.
My boyfriend had his mother and niece arrive from Maine last night, and decided to take them to Don Jose's as we had good experiences in the past. This was not one of them. I would have complained yesterday, but out of respect for having visitors have taken this route.
Upon arriving, we were seated quickly and greeted - received drinks in a timely manner, and then ordered a quesadilla appetizer that came out relatively quickly and tasted/looked like items we have received in the past. Prior to delivery of the quesadilla we also ordered the fried avocado. From this point forward the dinner started to go downhill - we received the appetizers, ate... and waited. Finally the server came over and we ordered 3 of the 4 meals with halibut.
About 30 minutes later, the server appeared back to the table, to state that the kitchen was out of halibut....... for the past 3 days. This seems like something that would have been caught when she rang it in, something that would be addressed to staff upon arriving to work, possibly on a white board of 86'd items, etc - so I would assume that she most likely forgot to ring in the meal and that is why it was caught so late.
She then stated that we hadn't lost our place in line and could order different items, and there were 5 tickets ahead of us. During all this time, I watched a table sit, eat, and leave. In addition, another table that had sat 30+ mins after us, and order, received their meals ahead of us for our newly switched order.
This would be the last time that we would see our server, as she was clearly avoiding coming over to our table. I would have liked to order an additional glass of wine; however, I would have had to ask someone to scoot out of the booth and me go to the bar to receive any sort of service.
FINALLY, an hour and a half after arriving, we received our food. And how it was cold, one could not even fathom. The seafood shrimp tacos looked mostly like a large corn tortilla with a tiny, laughable, amount of shrimp in them - I would have been embarrassed to take it to the table as a server. The chimichanga looked like it was fried twice, and wasn't even flaky/crispy like I have seen in every other Mexican style restaurant I have been to in the past. And the naked chicken burrito was flavorless, and I was up-charged for quinoa which the menu didn't state was an additional charge, rather an option.
At the end, we mentioned to the server how ridiculous our now nearly 2 hour experience was and she said "well, we're low on staff, if you want to work in the kitchen or know someone then the wait time wouldn't be as long" in a rude, curt, manner. As someone who has been a server, I was in complete shock with how she addressed the situation - not one apology, total lack of customer service.
And, from all of this our bill was $98.50, which as you can read above, was not the value that we received.
I am writing to you to express my disappointment, provide you with the experience to address the issue with staff, and am hoping that you make it right and provide me with some incentive to give your restaurant another chance, as previous experiences were enough to bring newly arrived guests to dine in.
In addition, I am writing the email with the intent of allowing you to express any feedback to the situation, instead of publicly posting this as a review for the time being.
Thank you,
(Provided the date/receipt#, etc)
Since I have not heard back, it only confirms my disappointment with the overall restaurant, and I will not be going back - nor would I recommend it to anyone. read more