I have to first say, I love Shindigs. Winfield is blessed to have them. The food is great, and the…read morestaff is very personable, and they cater to requests that are slightly off menu very well, and thank you for that.
Now, why am I dropping from five to four stars? The staff leadership. Where is it? Where is an experienced leader to help ensure the customers' needs are met? What I see is a very young (and very sweet) staff operating largely unsupervised.
Tonight, for example. My wife and I got dressed for dinner, and showed up sans reservation. All good. I made my way to the bar to get drinks for my wife and me, while my wife checked us in. We were seated in a booth fairly quickly upstairs. Our server took good care of us, despite how busy it was. So far so good.
My wife ordered a yummy sandwich, and I ordered the Yard Bird, essentially a grilled chicken breast. I ordered asparagus and a side salad to go along with it. We sat there for a bit, but things were busy, and all was good. We were having a great time.
Here's where they could do better, and it feels very typical as we're eating there - a lot.
After sitting for a while our food came, but here's the deal. The salad wasn't delivered early, as is customary. It came with my entrée. By the time I enjoyed my salad, and the vinaigrette was outstanding, the chicken and asparagus was cold. I just boxed it up and took it home.
Really? How hard is this, folks? Your food is priced at big boy prices, but the overall service is not up to the prices you charge.
Here are a few more examples. These are simple things that can be fixed, if anyone bothers to:
Since I moved here over a year ago, I've developed a liking for their onion rings. We frequently order them as an appetizer. In that year, guess how many times when the appetizer is delivered to the table (usually by a member of the kitchen staff and not by our server) that we have plates for each person to use?
Zero. Not once in the last year. All we can do is try to catch the kitchen staff member before they walk away and ask for plates. Then we wait as our appetizer cools off for the plates. Who's guiding these kids?
Next, order iced tea. You'll get your tea, but many, many times with such a minimum of ice that you have to ask the server for more ice before you're even a third through.
On the tea thing, if you order iced tea with lemon, in my experience you'll get the lemon you ordered only about half the time, and you have to follow up.
Additionally, when you're done with your first glass of tea and you're due for a refill, it would be outstanding if, when a refill is placed in front of you, it had lemon as well. It's so simple, right?
Back to tonight's dinner. We had dinner in a booth upstairs, but we decided to move downstairs for coffee and dessert at the bar. But wait, the coffee machine is broken, so no coffee. We left, and went to another restaurant for dessert.
I love the people at Shindigs, and it pains me to give this feedback. I'm a foodie, and I appreciate good service and tip accordingly. I'm not one with restaurant experience, other than from a customer perspective. It just seems to me that someone should be teaching basic expectations to the staff, then hold them accountable for providing it. I assume the teaching has taken place, I just don't see the accountability by a leader following up.
