Food is delicious, but overpriced. I ordered the prawns in curry for $22. Do I want rice? Of course. Get the bill and another $5 was added for the small scoop of rice.
The service was very sub-par. I worked as a server for years. I know how the job should be done. Our server, Paula, would have easily received 25% tip on our $100 bill for dinner for 2, but she ended up with 10% as I grew more and more annoyed with her lack of service.
1) We are seated after waiting 40 minutes for a table. (No reservations allowed. What's up with that? Also, the parking situation needs to be improved. We had to park across the street at Trader Joe's and dodge traffic because the lot is full of people who are not inside eating but are outside, waiting.) We see our server, Paula, attend to every other table individually (she's one of those servers who takes a drink order and makes a beeline for the kitchen, goes to another table with a take-out box, then turns around and heads straight back to the kitchen. Honey. You need to make a sweep of your tables. At least GLANCE their way.) So, we sit there while another table next to us is seated and eventually Paula tends to them first-- does the whole "get their drink, then turns around and run to the kitchen" move, even though we're literally sitting 1 foot away: Eventually she gets to us, at which point we've BEEN ready to place our entire order for some time. (Pro tip: When you ask a table if they're ready to place a drink order and they have their menus closed and say shortly, "We're ready to place our order," they're already irked. Step up your game.) I ordered a cold chai. She said she didn't know if they had it. We're there at 5:40 pm on a Saturday. No chai? I said if you don't have it, I'll take a regular iced tea. That's what I got. More on that later.
2) We never saw Paula again. Someone else brought us waters. Another server brought our food. Eventually I wave Paula down and say we'd like to see a dessert menu. (My one glass of iced tea, which was never refilled, is empty now.) She brings the dessert menu then disappears. (Note: we had tickets for the opera. We needed to leave at a certain time. We gave ourselves 2 hours to eat, knowing there could be a wait.)
3) Eventually she returns and takes our dessert order. Does not ask my husband if he'd like another cocktail (which he did, but she rain off and he didn't want to wait another 15 minutes for a drink). Does not refill my tea. Does not bus our table. We stack our dishes ourselves and hand them to another server.
4) Another couple sits at the table beside us and the person orders an iced chai. Paula says she doesn't know if they have any. (? I look at my husband. How does she not know? I ordered it minutes earlier and didn't get it, presumably because there wasn't any. My husband says, "Watch her get chai." Yep. Indeed she did. As I still sat with an empty glass.)
5) Paula starts telling the other table the night's specials. Again, my husband and I look at each other. She never offered to tell us the specials.
6) Another server drops our teeny, tiny dessert off. Ridiculously small. Oh well. I ask for a refill for my glass that has been sitting empty most of the evening.
7) I wave Paula down and ask for the bill. I have my credit card in hand and am about to hand it to her, but she drops off the bill and darts away. Again, we sit and sit and sit. A full 10, maybe 15 minutes later, she finally returns. Runs my card, drops it back off, and doesn't bother to say "Thank you."
Servers here, with the menu prices and food quality-- which is good-- have the opportunity to make good money if they learn some basic rules for how to treat customers. I almost always tip at LEAST 25%, sometimes 30%. But, I tip for the service, not the food, and Paula should consider herself lucky to get the 10% I left. For real, you get better service at a Chik-fil-A. read more