We had reservations for four at 6PM on Saturday night (10/15) for a business dinner with associates.
We arrived about 10 minutes before six and were promptly seated at 6. Our waitress said she'd be right back with waters and to take drink orders. At 6:15, she came back but without water. I had been working outside all day and was as thirsty as a camel in the desert. She grabbed a water jug and filled the water glasses as she took our drink orders. 10 minutes later, she returned with the drinks. at that point, there were six people in the dining room including our group of 4. The dining room began to fill in and we realized it would be good for us to place our order. Our waitress was not easy to flag down even though she passed within sight multiple times. About 6:30, we asked about ordering and she said that they had a number of "specials" and the recited at least 6-8 items that were not on the menu. Many sounded great but remembering them all was impossible. They didn't offer a printed list of their specials which was disappointing. My wife is plant based and ordered marinara and pasta only. I ordered the rib eye steak medium plus or medium well and the waitress confirmed pink in the middle only and I said yes. We were ready for more drinks but again, flagging her down to order them was not so easy. The wait for the entrees were painful and finally, about 7:45 (now 1:45 from arrival and 1:15 after ordering) she brought three entrees. My wife's entree wasn't even close to what she asked for and was a prepared something - unknown. My rib eye didn't show. We again flagged her down and she took my wife's entree and said she'd be back. A few minutes later she showed up with the rib eye which was a touch past raw. Blood red center and pink on the outside. I asked that she please have it touched up. Now our guests are eating and my wife and I are both without entrees. Next, the chef came out to confirm that my wife wanted only pasta and sauce. He said the marinara has meat in it but he can remove the meat. We said "marinara alone doesn't have any meat???" I still did not have my rib eye back. It is now close to 8:15 and our guests have nearly completed their meals and the rib eye and my wife's pasta and marinara came back. My rib eye was stone cold, and while the outside looked like it had been warmed, it had been sitting long enough to reach room temperature or less - literally. I was pretty disappointed to say the least.
The quality of the food was good, but the experience with the problems with timing and service were terrible and frankly ruined our experience. In the end, we just wanted to get home and let our guests go who live over an hour away. The bill arrived, and I gave my business credit card. The waitress returned after a minute and said "We don't take American Express" This was frankly the final nail in the coffin. My own company accepts credit cards and we have for 30 years. There is an incorrect belief by many that American Express charges more than Visa and MC, but the reality is that ALL CREDIT CARDS end up costing the merchant about 3.5% including AmEx. On the surface, Amex appears to charge about 1% more than other cards, however, Amex charges are "all in" while the others charge all kinds of fees and some credit cards, particularly the ones that give 1-2% cash back or all Government credit Cards, charge upwards of 4% to the merchants far exceeding AmEx. Again, this was really irritating. I found that I had enough cash on me to cover the bill (nearly $400) but not enough to leave a tip so I had to use my personal credit card further complicating the business expense.
I will never go back nor recommend this restaurant. It is too bad because the chef was a nice guy and the other reviews were so strong, that's what took me there but I think our waitress was just in way over her head, or, the restaurant was understaffed and overbooked. It seemed that way at least to me. Either way, it was hugely disappointing. The waitress made multiple mistakes with the order and being handed cold (still under-cooked) steak after over 2 hours, was just horrible.
We left at 8:45 and our guests were also very displeased. read more