I had never been there before and accepted an invite to join pals. It looked nice, clean. I saw part of my group and my friend J. Informed the waiter that we would need to add another table to the two that were already pushed together because there would be 10 of us. The waiter looked confused by this so we explained again & he got another table over & gave us menus. Once the rest of our party arrived the waiter we indicated we were ready to place our orders and let him know there would be separate checks for 6. R. began to tell him who would be on who's check but the waiter looked confused again & asked R. to let him know later. He began to take orders. R. was giving his order & just as he was finishing the waiter turned completely away from him. R. had his menu still open and mouth about to speak and this kid just turned his back to him, literally. R. and I made eye contact with each other. R. was not happy about that. I thought it was rude too but we gave the waiter a pass - perhaps he didn't realize or know any better? The waiter continued to take food and drink orders. The waiter began to bring out the drink orders, asking who had what. R. was given his water with lemon but the glass had a huge vertical crack along the side. Before the waiter could sit the glass on the table three of us noticed and said, "That glass is broken." He looked at it, in that same confused look, finally saw the crack and took it back. Can't remember if he apologized. He came back with a new glass of water but no lemon. Sent him back for lemon which he brought right out. Soups were brought out and he didn't know who's was who's with that as with the drinks. I had lemon rice and it was very good soup so I had high hopes for the rest of my meal (moussaka and fries). Once the meals came, again, he didn't know who's meals were who's. Another waitress was giving him a hand with a few of the plates. She sat R.'s in front of him warning it was a hot place, not to touch it right away. Our waiter leaned over from the other side of the table to hand me my plate & I said, "If it's hot I don't want to touch it. Could you walk it around please?" I was sitting on the end of the other side of the table. He'd have to just walk around the end (two peoples worth of space). Instead of walking it over, he simply leaned a bit more and practically tossed my plate infant of me. He sat my friend C.'s plate in front of him so awkwardly that one of his chicken strips scooted right off of his plate onto the table. (I asked C. a little later if his chicken strips were as overcooked as they looked & he said yes.)
Not making a good 1st impression on me. And the food, though promising at first with that lovely chicken lemon rice soup, was a big disappointment. My moussaka which is beef/eggplant and a cream top was was about 2 to 2.5" thick & mostly the cream top (which is my favorite part, to be honest). There should never be a thicker cream layer than the beef/eggplant layer. The eggplant peels (the little bit that there was) were a bit tough too.
The fries looked good, Pale/yellow/golden appearance but once I began to eat them I found them to be overcooked. The insides of the fries seemed dried out...perhaps freezer burned?
The waiter refilled some of our drinks but didn't even ask some of us. Then he came while we were eating and got the separation of the bills in order and left them for us. R. said he was going to complain to management about the service. I told him I would back him up & add a complaint about the fries. We went up to pay our bills & speak the person at the register (who happened to be the waitress that warned R about the hot plate). Before R could finish his comment about the service, she nodded yes & said that she saw the waiter was having a hard time with it all and that's why she was helping him with he orders when they came out. She asked if we wanted to speak to the management and we said, "Yes, please." R. told her we would wait over by the side of the kitchen so we didn't get overheard by or disrupt other diners. R and I stood there less than a minute when we say a man motion to us to come sit at a booth with him. (manners would have had him walk to us, introduce himself & ask us to follow him but that's ok, just waive us, the already annoyed patrons, on over). We walked over and sat down. He said he was the manager/owner. His name was Tony. R. introduced himself and began, politely and directly, asking that he be heard out before responded to. Tony agreed but you could feel the defensiveness pouring out of him. R told him everything. Tony replied that he's never had anything but compliments about this waiter, that he was his best. Tony said we should have asked for him as sooner. We explained we were hoping the waiter would redeem himself at some point.
out of characters - short version - mgr. was defensive, argumentative , not hearing us. We approached this politely & respectfully. Managers 'tude loses our biz read more
