I am extremely disappointed with how we were treated at this restaurant, particularly by the…read morehostess.
My friend and I, two Asian women, walked in and were told the wait would be approximately 45 minutes to an hour. That was completely fine with us, so we waited outside.
While waiting, however, we watched other parties get seated while we continued to wait. I was sitting right by the entrance and personally heard the hostess tell a party of three who arrived roughly 30-40 minutes AFTER us that their wait would be around 50 minutes. Yet somehow, they were seated right away. We also saw two parties who had walked in before us, each consisting of only two guests, get seated at tables for four while we continued waiting. Eventually, we were the last party still waiting outside.
When we were finally seated, we calmly mentioned what happened to a male staff member who came to our table. He was very nice, listened to us, and apologized. We appreciated how professionally he handled our concern.
Apparently, he then spoke to the hostess about it.
Instead of coming over to calmly explain the seating situation, the hostess came to our table visibly angry and started yelling at us, telling us that if we had something to say, we should say it directly to her.
At that point, we were so uncomfortable and upset that we decided to leave, even though we had already ordered. As I was explaining to the male staff member that her behavior was incredibly rude and inappropriate, she confronted us again and told us that if we had something to say, we could "say it to her face outside."
She then followed/walked us outside and continued yelling at us in front of the restaurant while other customers watched.
When we questioned why the party of three who arrived after us had been seated first, she said it was because there were three of them and only two of us, so we had to wait for a table on the two-seater side. I then pointed out a four-person table that currently had only two guests sitting at it. Her explanation then changed, and she said those guests had reservations. However, we had also seen two parties who arrived before us, each with only two guests, seated at four-person tables.
Whatever the explanation for the seating order may have been, there was absolutely NO justification for a hostess to come to our table yelling, confront us for privately expressing a concern to another employee, challenge us to "say it to her face outside," and then continue yelling at us in front of the restaurant.
As two Asian women, after watching people who arrived after us get seated first, seeing other two-person parties seated at tables for four, and then being treated with this level of hostility when we questioned it, we genuinely felt that we were being discriminated against. Whether that was her intention or not, that is how her behavior made us feel.
We came to this restaurant to have a meal, not to be screamed at and publicly confronted by an employee because we raised a concern about how we were being treated.
The male staff member who initially helped us was kind, professional, and apologetic, and I appreciate him. Unfortunately, the hostess's behavior completely ruined the experience. We left without eating because we no longer felt comfortable staying.
Management should seriously address this. No customer should be treated this way.