Where to begin with this place. First off, let me say I truly understand the difficulties restaurants have faced with the COVID pandemic, but sadly this had nothing to do with the terrible service received during our experience there last night (one of the two inattentive hostesses consistently had her mask pulled beneath her chin).
We walked into the restaurant around 5:45pm, the hostess (with the mask beneath her chin) was on the phone so she just looked at us and looked away. We had no clue what the other hostess was doing, but didn't give us the time of day. Tip: greet customers, even if you just say "be right with you" so we know what's up. Patiently, we waited behind a couple standing near the hostess stand, thinking they were waiting to put their name in. After realizing they weren't, we finally made our way over and put our name in. No indication as to how long the wait would be. No problem there...we are pretty patient. After about 15 minutes of waiting inside, one of the hostesses asked if we could wait outside. Sure, no problem. Funny how you had no problem communicating with us at this point, but we practically had to flag you down to put our name in.
Now, I'm not sure if people had reservations or not, but I definitely saw others that came in after us get seated before us. Again, not saying anything at this point, still being patient. At about 7, one hostess finally came out and said your table is ready outside on the patio, they just need to clean it. Okay. Waited another 10-15 minutes until this was done! How long does it take to clean a table?! Finally, the two hostesses come out, we follow one, and the other (who's also walking with another group) says, " you are following me." So she does a zig-zag to get in front of us. Both of them end up seating us at a dark area in the parking spaces (right on the side of the patio). There was hardly any lighting out there (as it was already dark at this point) in our area... could barely see our table. Suggestion here: put lighting in this area or remove the tables!
Got bread within 5 minutes (no oil or waters). Waited another good 15-20 minutes for the waitress to come to our table. She asked if we were waiting long....yes, quite long actually. She apologized, and said they were short-staffed and one of the ovens was out of commission. Okay...that stinks but we had no knowledge of this walking in. We ordered everything at once to speed up the process. We were hungry, and just wanted to get out of there. Surprisingly, the food came out super fast. Before the drinks though. Huh? My daughter received her drink with her meal...thankfully, in case I needed a sip to wash down my food. We asked for ketchup for my daughters meal...it never came. The food was bland, and definitely not worth the wait. I ended up taking my daughter to the car while my husband waited for the check.
We will not be returning here. The only reason we waited was because of the time invested WAITING for a table. The majority of the experience was awful. Only good things were our waitress and the musician (who we have seen at the Colosseum in Windham...excellent food/service here!). Even the table next to us got up and just left. Do better, Sabatino's. read more