We visited The Harbor on Sunday, September 6th, and I really wanted to love this place…read more
My husband found it and thought it would be the perfect spot to celebrate our son and his girlfriend's 1-year anniversary. Our son is attending college at Navarro, while his girlfriend lives in Hawaii, and she flew all the way out to Texas just to spend their anniversary with him. My husband and I wanted to treat them to a special dinner, so this wasn't just another night out for us.
First, I will say the location is BEAUTIFUL. The drive out there was gorgeous, and being right on the water made us even more excited about dinner.
We completely understood that it was a busy holiday weekend. My husband called ahead, and the hostess was kind enough to get us a 6:00 PM reservation. We ended up arriving about 15 minutes late, and despite how packed they were, she was very gracious and seated us immediately. We truly appreciated that.
Unfortunately, that's where the good customer service pretty much ended.
We sat for almost 25 minutes before our waitress was even able to take our drink order. She was very sweet and apologized, and because we could already see how overwhelmed they were, we tried to be understanding. At that point I told my husband, "Let's just order our food now too because we're probably going to be waiting awhile." Thank goodness we did.
Our waitress told us she would bring dinner rolls. More than 30 minutes passed... no rolls. We eventually had to ask for them ourselves.
We kept watching more people being seated, especially outside, while we continued to wait...and wait...and wait.
Eventually we went outside to take pictures by the water because our food was nowhere in sight. By then, we had been waiting around an hour and 15 minutes. My husband was beyond frustrated and ready to leave, but we had driven about 25 minutes to get there and the kids were STARVING.
When he finally asked how much longer our food would take, we were told, "Oh, it's ready."
It wasn't.
Our food finally arrived around the 1 HOUR AND 30 MINUTE mark.
On top of that, they had run out of the large pizza we ordered and offered us two small pizzas instead. I assumed "small" would still be a reasonable size. Nope. They were basically personal-pan sized--and for what we paid, that was another disappointment.
Now, I will absolutely give credit where it's due: when our main dishes FINALLY arrived, the food was delicious. We enjoyed what we ordered.
But good food doesn't erase an hour-and-a-half wait with very little communication or attention.
When we asked for more rolls, we were told they had run out. By the time everything was said and done, we looked around and realized we were literally the LAST TABLE being served and the last customers leaving. The owners appeared to be at the bar, yet no one came over to acknowledge what had happened, apologize for the excessive wait, or even offer to adjust anything on our bill.
And THAT is what bothered me the most!!
I understand restaurants get busy. I understand holiday weekends can be crazy. I understand kitchens get backed up and things run out. What I don't understand is continuing to seat customers when your staff and kitchen are already overwhelmed, while customers who have been waiting well over an hour are left wondering when--or IF--their food is coming.
Sometimes customer service is simply saying, "We are really sorry. We dropped the ball tonight. What can we do to make this right?"
We never got that.
I honestly wish I had read some of the reviews before my husband booked our dinner here. The Harbor is absolutely beautiful, and if you want somewhere to enjoy the scenery and take gorgeous pictures by the water, the location delivers.
But would I drive 25 minutes back to have dinner there again? Unfortunately, NO.
This was supposed to be a special anniversary dinner for two young people we love, and instead most of the evening was spent hungry, waiting, frustrated, and wondering where our food was.
Beautiful view. Delicious food once it finally arrived. But the overall experience and customer service left us extremely disappointed.
And for us, a beautiful view just isn't enough to make up for that.
