I'm giving 1 star because of management and one particular dish that caused me to get onto yelp.
So, we went to the Howell NJ location today to celebrate a special occasion. They only had bar area seating as there was a baby shower in the main room. Fine, we didn't know... The hostess was lacking in pleasantry. Our server was FANTSTIC and very nice! We ordered an appetizer, drinks & salad to start. We ordered additional drinks & our order was consisting of the Paella -Shrimp, calamari, mussels, clams, and hot sausage over "yellow rice" approx. $32 & Zuppa de Pece, Shrimp, clams, mussels & calamari served in a plum sauce over linguine also approx. $32. Sounds the same but should look & tase SUPER different. Of course, the servers are programed to ask if "everything is all right" and probably expect a response of "oh, everything is great, thank you"! I said no, the Paella looks exactly like to Zuppa de Pesce, watery, red and had zero to no rice. NO yellow anything as described on the menu. I had picked "some" of the shellfish from the dish as there was no rice to be had when suddenly after about 10-15 minutes from my disappointing comment, the server brings a small dish of yellow rice and tell's me to add it to the red watery dish as if that was going to make it a paella. At that point, my husband was almost done with his meal and my meal looked like his, so I had not picked too much from mine waiting on the manger to come over and observe what I was describing. Our meal was not cheap so why not get what I ordered per description on their menu? I saw paella was excited and was looking forward to having it. Well, the mgr. came to our table & that was a disaster! The MANAGER (you know who you are) had the nerve to say, they gave me yellow rice (10-15min into our meal, which I did not touch as the dish was supposed to be yellow rice NOT red Sause watery like everything else) .When I tried to explain to him, he said "he had served X number of paellas ordered today and no one had any complaints". Perhaps, the cliental were not ethnic who would know better??? As he took my dish which still had most of the shellfish in it, He also preceded w/ I was causing in scene (I was speaking in low voice) when in fact he was treating me like I had no class (as I was speaking to him in a low voice). He went as far as to say that "I was causing a scene, embarrassing myself & I was looking for a free meal". I was not causing a scene; he was embarrassing us and we're to F-ing proud to look for FREE anything! He also said we should leave, WTF, I hope he's an owner because he should be FIRED for being an A-Hole and if not, he's just an A-Hole. He discounted the paella to 1/2 the cost, but there was no rice and there was a lot of the shellfish still in the plate when he took it and he snarky asked if I wanted to take it home, I'd be charged full price even though there was no rice! I did not want it, but his tone was extremely jerky and unprofessional. Just an unpleasant experience. He might have just called it a loss, charged the price and extended a comp meal for a better experience for next time. Yeah Right, that would mean he was a nice human.
NEVER have I or we\'ve been treated like that!!! We felt a little as though he was being discriminating to go as far as to ask us to leave when we're just trying to enjoy a meal and not causing any problems, scene or disputing payment. If you can't handle criticism, don't false advertise. Paella should not be watery, red sauced and rice lacking and tase like your Zuppa de Pesce seafood dish!! The dish was a watery, red, sodium induced with a teaspoon of rice, maybe? We could have stayed home and had canned soup and avoided the embarrassment caused by the manager.
The manager on hand today 8-11-24 (you know who) was so quick to be rude in his wanna be a professional, showing condescending mannerism, judgy and openly accusing us of wanting a free meal, while we're sitting in the bar table area where people can actually hear him. Your food is not that great that we need a doggy bag, nor would I feed it to my beloved pet. Please take a course in customer service skills and take paella off your menu as it SUCKS, and we're not embarrassed as we did nothing accept to provide you with our thoughts about your dish, since the server felt compelled to ask. You got paid and the server was well tipped.
Season Coal Fired Bistro Howell, Hope your manger is happy with the review for your crappy food and the managers rude dismissive behavior to criticism.
We won't go back as this was a trial looking for a simple Sunday afternoon after experiencing crappy food 2019 & 2020. We will make sure that we tell our friends not to go there because the manger is not about the truth about the food or customer experience. read more