Let me preface this review by saying my experience with Il Mercato today was so bad that it motivated me to sign up for Yelp in order to share my frustrations with the lack of quality and customer service offered.
I ordered a plate of fettucini alfredo that consisted of a to-go box filled with oily pasta, a couple chunks of chicken, a dusting of parmesan, and a couple milimeters of oil/grease at the bottom for good measure. It tasted just as it appeared, bland oily pasta. There wasn't a hint of alfredo sauce to be found, both visually and taste-wise.
I thought she may have forgotten to add the sauce, so I went back to the counter to ask for it. "I actually put a lot in," was her response. I asked if she could put some more in. She went to the fridge and grabbed a big bag of unopened sauce and looked around for something to cut it with.
At this point, the clear fact that she'd skipped adding any sauce in the first place, along with the realization that it wouldn't really be able to save the unappetizing oily mess in front of me, had me second guessing my decision to eat there.
I told her not to worry about opening the bag of sauce, and that I'd just prefer to have my money back instead. She tells me only her boss is capable of issuing refunds and that he'd stepped out, there's nothing she can do. Uh, ok I guess...
So I go back to my seat to wait. After about 10 minutes or so it dawns on me that anyone working a cash register should be able to do a simple refund, and I need to get back to work as I've already wasted a good chunk of my lunch hour. I go back to the counter and ask her to either refund me or call her boss so I can get some kind of timeframe for when he'll be back. She's clearly hating me at this point, and I know they don't pay her enough to deal with this kind of bullshit, but this is basic customer service. I'm doing my best to not come across as confrontational.
She tells me she already called him (yeah right) and that I'm being rude and aggressive, and to go back to my seat and wait until her boss comes. I can tell she's stressed so I oblige. Now, I've got to say, I've worked in customer service, and I have a lot of sympathy for employees in her position having been in similar situations. The only thing I think that could have come across badly on my part was asking her if she really couldn't process a refund without her boss present with a hint of incredulity in my voice. Sorry, it was hard to believe her at this point.
Twenty or so more minutes of waiting later she comes by and drops $9 in change on the table in front of me and walks off without saying a word. I guess she didn't want me dealing directly with her boss after all. This could have taken twenty minutes, but instead ended up wasting the better part of my lunch hour.
I have no problem calling her out here after that treatment. She's a 5' blonde woman with an Eastern-European accent, I think I overheard her mention her name was Kristianna (sp?) in my half-hour+ of waiting around the restaurant for her boss to show up. Definitely not the kind of person capable of being left alone in charge of a restaurant for any amount of time.
I'll be avoiding this place for the foreseeable future, and you should think twice about chosing it over the many other great food options available in the Byward market.
/end rant read more
