Ok, here's my review of Hawkeye & Huckleberry:
Not impressed! It's the popular, happnin' place in Bend. Excellent music playing - our Era.
However...
Service was really, really bad. We had to flag someone down after waiting 20 minutes after being seated. Many, many servers just walked past, no smile, no eye contact, our presence was not acknowledged by anyone.
After 10 minutes of waiting I started counting the number of servers I saw. At one point there were many servers hanging out, talking and doing nothing at the back of the huge bar, 8 at one point, 10 at another.
Finally, Rocky flagged down a gal who had walked past 3 times and asked her, "are we supposed to place our order at the bar?" Finally, with prompting, we had a bartender come over and take our drink order.
With that 20 minute wait for service Hawkeye & Huckleberry missed out on an additional drink order of $30 - $40 and the server missed out on a tip on top of that.
Speaking of tips - we tip very well - 20-22%. We docked the tip $1 for every 5 minutes that we waited to just be acknowledged. We also docked $2 for no one checking back to see if the $77 filet was prepared correctly, it wasn't. My husband ordered it medium rare, it was served medium. I'm a chef, I know the difference. He ate it, as is, because it was another 10 minutes before the server came back and asked how it was. They lost $6 on the tip in total, and we really should have deducted more.
Absolutely none of the servers ever smiled to us or any of the tables around us (this is not an exaggeration, it's one of my pet peeves so I pay attention). I have an extremely hard time with that...that's bad management, not training your staff properly.
Even when we entered the establishment we were not welcomed with a smile or made to feel that they were glad we were there. In my opinion, in an establishment where they pride themselves on having a celebrity chef and you're upcharging because of that, every one who enters should be treated like a friend. Hostess staff should smile, welcome patrons, ask if you've been in before, tell them your glad to have them join them for dinner, just make patrons feel welcomed! A smile goes a long way! I also had indicated in the reservation that we were celebrating a birthday, the hostess did ask who's birthday, I told her my husbands. Then it was dropped there. The server didn't say a word. Why ask if it's a special event/celebration if you're not going to acknowledge it.
Our entire time there we felt like we were putting staff out.
The food:
The Caesar salad was excellent! Could actually taste the anchovy- I love that! Very, very good!
Pepperoni Hot Honey pizza...NO! Nothing special, at all. Being 1/2 Mexican I like hot pepper shakes on my pizza anyway. Honey added absolutely nothing to it. I didn't even taste it. And it was not made well. Some slices had about 3 tiny rounds of Pepperoni, with big blank areas with nothing on it. Others slices would have 3 pieces stacked up. If they had taken time to place the Pepperoni correctly, I would have had one in every bite.
Rockys $77 filet was overcooked a little. He ordered med rare, it was closer to med. It was 10 minutes before our server came back to check on our meal so he ended up eating it anyway.
The frites were really good. Cut in a large julienne, fried in tallow. Crisp on the outside, tender to the point of creamy on the inside. Very good!
I usually don't take the time to write reviews but we want to see restaurants be successful. We spend a lot of money each month in casual and fine dining restaurants. We are foodies. I've been to culinary school and have had a career in the restaurant industry. I know how important and significant customer service is to the success of an establishment.
Poor hospitality/customer service will make or break a restaurant especially at Hawk & Huck prices!
Unfortunately, in our opinion, service at Hawkeye & Huckleberry is broken. We won't go back unless we hear there's been a retraining of staff and improvement in customer service.
There are other places to go for a better steak at better prices with much better service. read more