I recently visited Northwood Golf Club Restaurant in Monte Rio, California, for breakfast, and the…read moreexperience was wonderful. The food was amazing, and we were treated with great respect. No sooner had we ordered than our food arrived--within about five minutes. The staff was friendly and accommodating, and we enjoyed a beautiful view of the golf course from our table by the window. The pancake was bigger than our heads, so we ordered just one and shared it. It was absolutely delectable!
Because we enjoyed our breakfast experience so much, we decided to return that evening for dinner. Unfortunately, our dinner experience could not have been more different.
When we arrived, we were told to choose any table we liked, which was fine. However, once we sat down, we were completely ignored. Eventually, I waved a waitress over. She brought us silverware and a couple of menus, and that was the last we saw of her for quite some time.
Meanwhile, other guests were arriving and being seated at tables adjacent to ours, and they were served almost immediately. I watched as their orders were taken while we continued waiting without even being acknowledged.
My cousin eventually got up and went to the bar to order a drink. He was told that it would be better to order from our table because we would receive faster service that way. Unfortunately, that was not our experience. I watched the table next to us receive their soup while we still had not even been able to order a drink.
I finally waved another waitress down. She told me she would find the waitress who had originally been assigned to us. We continued to wait. When the other waitress finally returned, she said she would take our order herself. We both ordered steak and baked potatoes, and she asked if we wanted our potatoes "loaded," which we did. She also took our drink order.
Another 15-20 minutes passed, and we still had not received our drinks. At this point, the situation had become extremely frustrating, and we could not help but feel that we were being treated differently because of our race.
Eventually, another waiter came over and apologized for the long wait. He went over our order with us and explained that they had been out of baked potatoes for about two hours. He asked what drinks we had ordered. We told him, and he again profusely apologized. He acknowledged how long we had been waiting and said he would get our drinks immediately and put in our food order.
I have traveled all over the world and have visited countless restaurants and businesses, but I have never experienced this kind of treatment. This was the first time in my life that I genuinely felt I was experiencing racism.
I sincerely hope that this was not the reason we were treated the way we were, but based on everything that happened that evening, it is difficult not to feel that way. The contrast between our breakfast and dinner experiences was astonishing. During breakfast, we felt welcomed, respected, and valued. That evening, we felt completely ignored and unwelcome.
If this is truly what we experienced, I cannot see myself returning to Northwood Golf Club. I hope management takes this experience seriously and looks into how guests are being treated, because no customer should leave an establishment feeling the way we did.
It is especially disappointing because we had such a wonderful breakfast experience that we actually chose to come back for dinner. Unfortunately, that second visit left us with a completely different impression of the establishment.
