One and done....
Full disclosure, the establishment did offer some compensation for this situation. And this review is not to recommend they do not patronize this restaurant, because I hope our dining experience was far from the norm.
Here we go! Wednesday we hiked Tom's Thumb and picked Proof at the Four Seasons to have lunch with our group of 8 because of its location. So when you think of Four Seasons you have a level of expectation for quality, service and attention for the money you are going to be spending. And we know we had a large group, but they have to be used to that size of group and larger.
When we arrived our in-laws were already seated out on the patio so were able to join them straight away. A few minutes later our server came to the table to get our drink order, one Diet Coke. Everyone else was fine with water. A bit after he delivered the Diet Coke my daughter ordered some appetizers for us, the pretzel knots. They did not arrive at our table for almost a half an hour. But I have to tell you, they were absolutely the best pretzel anything I have had. So delicious! And it took a while after that to get our entree order placed. And the place was not that busy that we could see.
After we placed our order, we sat. And sat. And sat. It was getting kind of ridiculous. So my wife went inside to find our waiter to find out what the status of our lunch order was. It wasn't till after the fact that she also noticed who we later found out was a woman from management. Our waiter told my wife that he would have to check on our order and speak to the manager.
So after we were there for over an hour they finally brought out our order. And they stated they were short a couple orders of French fries, because when they set my plate in front of me all I had on this huge plate was my order of the Proof Burger. So once everyone had there entrees it was time to dig in. I grabbed my burger, top bun was pretty warm and I found out why. When I squeezed it and turned it over to take a bite the whole top of the bun literally just crumbled to the plate. I ordered the burger with some pink, which it had, but that first bite was so dry I drank an entire glass of water to get it down. I opened the bun to just eat the burger and it was cold, and not even juicy in any way. I took one bite of just the burger and that was all I could eat.
There were 2 dishes of pasta at our table and I heard they were also cold and dry. The other sandwiches the others had, they said "were okay". They were the crispy chicken sandwich and the pulled pork sandwich. We were not impressed and for my $28 hamburger I had 2 bites of, awful! The only thing I heard anyone say something was good about was my niece who got a side of mashed potatoes, not sure how that is a side dish for pasta but at least she filled up on them.
After everyone else was about done the manager comes out to talk to my son-in-law who had already given them his credit card, and offed a discount on the tab and something about desert, I was not able to catch the entire exchange.
So when the manger came back to give my son-in-law the receipt she said she took off 50% and was going to give him a dozen cookies to go. Good because we had been there for over an hour and a half already. Here was my thought, I had 2 bites of my $28 hamburger that sucked, they should have removed that from the tab and then given 50% off the remainder of the tab. But that was not the case.
Here are some thoughts on what should have happened. Our waiter should have kept us informed on our order, good or bad. At least we would have had an idea of what we were up against. My wife and I were actually discussing just getting up and leaving because we were running out of patients. But decided to stick it out because of the group. If is was just the 2 of us we would have been gone. Considering our wait, our waiter should have informed the manager within the first 30 minutes so she could come out to find out what was going on. And, with as long as we were waiting the waiter should have offered us something to tide us over, some free appetizers or drinks, but nothing. The manager was apologetic but it was too little, too late.
Needless to say, it was the first and last time we will dine at this restaurant. read more