A quick disclaimer:…read more
This is not a critique on the servers themselves, but rather the business as a whole. Understaffing a long-weekend Saturday is an absurd decision and leaving the entire restaurant to one server is abysmal.
With that out of the way, let's get into it.
Saturday evening, a group of three and I, sat down at around 5:20 to get dinner. Knowing that Taste Of Egypt typically takes longer (the first time I got lunch here I waited 45 minutes for a to-go order!) I cautioned my friends that we should get there early. No problemo. 5:320 is plenty of time to get a meal at a leisure pace and be out before 7pm.
We sit, break for the bathroom, sit again and enjoy the quiet atmosphere. At the time of entry, there were maybe 2-3 occupied tables. Not a lot at all.
A few minutes go by, we haven't been seen by a server. Several more minutes prompts me to flag down the server and ask for, at the very least, some water.
Understandably, only three of four are at the table at this point. Regardless, we look through our menus and decide on what we'll be having. We eventually get our waters and---
We wait. And wait. And wait.
You see, dear readers, it wouldn't be until 20 minutes later (give or take, I'm not counting on a stopwatch) that we would be seen again. Only because we, once again, flagged down the server to take our appetizer orders. At the same time we were hoping to put in our meal orders, but alas he skedaddled off before we had a chance to say "excuse me".
When we sat down to dinner, we didn't expect this to become a whole day event.
And so begins the Game Of Waiting. Truthfully, I'm not sure how long we waited. It was long enough to feel the time aging your skin, to feel your soul leaving your body as the last dregs of patience float off into the stratosphere.
Perhaps around 6:20 we got our appetizers. Finally, at long last, we could put in our dinner orders. So we did. The place, by then, had begun to fill up with a few more tables. But we figured we'd be able to get our food, eat quickly and continue on our way like the weary travelers we were.
Wrong!
By the time 6:50 rolled around, we still hadn't seen a lick of our food. At this point, we flagged down the server again and asked to get it boxed up instead. No problem! Except there was a problem.
He ventures off into the kitchens and when he returns, says the plates are ready and asks if we still want it boxed up. Heck yeah we do! We got places to be, shenanigans to sow, people to see! With that, he's off again. Honestly folks, I wouldn't have minded if he brought the plates and boxes and we did it ourselves. But 7:00 rolled around. Then 7:05.
We decided to go up and pay so we could be on our way quickly.
We waited there, too. One minute. Two. Five. The hostess (I assume? She certainly wasn't serving tables) flitted past us with nary an acknowledgement. 7:30 comes and I now understand the appeal of dining and dashing. There was a couple behind us in line and they got served first! Despite us waiting at the cash for 30 minutes! Absolute insanity.
It was only after that 30 minute mark, by the way, that the server finally gave us our to-go boxes. 40 minutes after our request. It takes 40 minutes to box prepared food, goodness gravy.
In the end, after our patience had been worn thinner than a tight rope at a circus, we paid only for what we ate and went on our way.
Absolutely atrocious of management to leave a single server on duty. Do better. Treat your staff better.
On a more positive note, Taco Boyz next door are very lovely.
