I had a group of friends visiting me recently, and they wanted an "authentic" New Glarus experience, so I took them to the Glarner Stube, because I have eaten there many times in the past and I thought they would love it. That was the last time I will ever go there.
Stube doesn't take reservations, but knowing they'd be busy that night, I called ahead and gave them a heads up because it was going to be a large group. Whoever answered the phone seemed to appreciate it, and thanked me.
When most of our group arrived, the restaurant had literally just opened and there was a two hour wait. We put our name on the list and wandered around town, stopping at another establishment for a drink and a snack. Two hours later, we headed back to wait for our table. I told the hostess how many would be in our group and that three of them wouldn't be there for a little while yet. She then sat us at a table with no extra room. The waitress seemed upset with the fact that we wanted to look at the menu - apparently we were supposed to be psychic and know exactly what we wanted the exact second we were seated, even though we told her we were waiting for the rest of our party. She informed us that we needed to order our food and that our friends could order when they got there. Uh, ok.
Our friends arrived, and since the table next to us had extra chairs, they grabbed them and gathered around. That's when the owner came over and started lecturing us about "crowding" other customers out. I explained, AGAIN, that I had told the hostess how many were in our party and that they had sat us at this table knowing the number of people that were going to be coming. She insisted that we move to a different table and remarked that our friends showing up late weren't making it fair for the rest of the people waiting. (Remember, we had already waited TWO HOURS for a table.) She also made a remark about us disturbing other diners (WHAT?!?!?) and the tables next to us assured her that we weren't bothering them one bit.
We should've left right then.
They then decided that moving us would disturb people further, and allowed us to stay seated where we were.
Our food was DELICIOUS. We had to hurry to eat, as the waitress kept trying to take our plates away while they were still full in an attempt to get us out of there as quickly as possible.
I've worked in a restaurant, I know how it is when it's busy. But at no point did we disturb anyone, and we didn't deserve to be treated that way. I was horrified that a restaurant I had spoken of so highly had treated my friends and I so terribly. We will not be going back there, ever. Which is too bad, because their food truly is delicious. read more