What an absolute Ship-Show…read more..
I was certain we were being Punk'd. At any moment I expected Ashton Kutcher to spring out from behind a curtain, headset dangling around his neck, laughing and pointing. But alas, there were no hidden cameras. This was sadly not a joke. And we weren't laughing.
Our party arrived for dinner at roughly 8:30p, a full 90 minutes prior to the "Kitchen Closes at 10p" posted cut-off time. The staff behaved as though we rolled up at 9:58p. While we were excited about our meals, the Shippy's team was very clearly already done for the night.
After navigating the waitlist and a hi-top bar table, we landed in our seats and placed our orders. We were there for dinner -- sadly our waitress was out to lunch.
We ordered two burgers, two wurst platters, and two steak entrees. They got one of those six orders correct, while the other five went up in flames.
Both wurst orders were cold. They were sent back to the kitchen, and came back cool.
The two steak entrees -- one a filet, the other a strip -- were reversed. The filet came undercooked (arrived medium rare when medium well had been requested) while the strip, which was ordered medium rare, came in medium well.
And of the two smash burgers, one was delicious. The other was missing.
In fact, the food arrived in strange phases. One overcooked entree. By itself. Five minutes later, two cold entrees. Another five minutes, an undercooked entree, followed by the lucky smash burger. Twenty minutes later, and after multiple reminders, the final smash burger arrived. Clearly it had never been ordered and needed to be rushed. And "rush" is rather generous.
Obviously the goal of a meal is for all entrees to arrive, at the proper temperatures, simultaneously. I've seen a snail wade through molasses at a better pace than this dinner service.
However, perhaps the most frustrating part of this experience was the overall lack of urgency by the staff. As our table sat bewildered, our waitress was nowhere to be found. The staff was wiping down tables, cleaning menus, polishing check presenters, and all while we sat with cold, dead, and missing food. Our table was sinking fast, and instead of tossing us a life raft, Shippy's stood on the shoreline waving us Bon Voyage.
Ultimately we had to call upon the manager, who tried her best but was without answers. There was nothing for her to do except remove one entree from the bill. In truth, the full meal should have been comped. It was that bad.
And these were only the major issues. There were also wine mixups, dirty plates that stayed around longer than unwanted relatives at Thanksgiving, and empty glasses strewn about the table like red Solo beer cups at a fraternity party.
To call the visit disappointing would be like referring to the Titanic as a row boat. This thing was an absolute disaster with Shippy's taking on water like a sea vessel made of Swiss cheese.
Despite issues with temperature, speed, accuracy, and attentiveness, we still managed to spend nearly $400. It would have been more productive to simply burn a wad of cash right there at the table -- at least then we could have warmed up the wurst.
