I had a reservation made at Merlos Inferno today for my sons first birthday (to clarify .. we go out every Thursday and this particular Thursday happened to fall on his birthday, not a party of any sort just one of our regular outings as a group). The reservation was made for 16, only 9 showed due to baby illness that morning and babies that were late napping and couldn't show. We had half babies and half moms and I expressed this when I made the original call to reserve a table. Obviously they are BABIES (all under a year old with one toddler) so therefore they made some mess. We tried to pick up some pieces off the floor, but of course can't do everything. The babies weren't disruptive and were kept in their high chairs.
4 hours after leaving the restaurant, I get a phone call from a "manager" Brenda, who tells me that it was inappropriate to make a reservation and only half show to which I replied and said that some babies got sick right before the reservation and the other napped late and that I made to reservation as a consideration for them to prepare instead of just showing up but that I also can't help things like that and apologized. She then proceeded to lecture me over the phone about the mess our babies left which I replied that they are BABIES and that happens. She said as mothers it's our responsibility to clean up after babies and that they shouldn't "run the place". I said that we tried to pick up what we could and that we can't possibly clean up everything with a few napkins. I told her she wouldn't get our business again and she said "that's fine". Apparently the servers complained that people with kids come in all the time and leave the place in a mess.
I have been a mom for 3.5 years, and have been to many different restaurants (many with our playgroup) and have NEVER felt like this! This restaurant is a disgrace to people with kids and will never get my business again. She claims they are baby friendly, but her phone call was rude and degrading. Even went as far as mentioning a specific item we gave our kids from the buffet and that it was inappropriate (chicken legs) and encourages we bring in our own food.
Meanwhile, we ordered deserts and were waiting foreverrrr , which was when our babies started getting restless and it was to the point we cancelled the desert because of the wait. We wanted to removed the babies so they wouldn't interrupt anyone's lunch. She also started talking about a past reservation about a group of moms that made a large reservation and only a few showed , which I said that wasn't us and you can't group everyone into one and this was our first reservation. Things happen. We're moms with small babies! We have a moms group with our babies and go to a lot of restaurants and have never once felt like our kids weren't wanted or unwelcome until today. It was handled so unprofessionally.
When we called back to express how upset we were by this call, a friend proceeded to say that this would end up on social media and she responded with "that's ok, I can write on social media too about moms that need to be more responsible and respectful".
And also said she was a mom and a grand mom and never seen kids make a mess like this nor would she let them!
This my friends, is such a lack of professionalism. I have never felt my kids weren't welcome anywhere until now. I will never go back. EVER! read more