It's very long but also very worthy of a read.
Saturday evening, we celebrated a close friends' birthday at Urban Elk at Allenmore golf course, as a party of 9. The place was busy and had a live band.
Follow this journey of extremely horrible service and some bad steaks...
The waitress took our table's orders randomly, think Duck-Duck-Goose style. She forgot to bring beverage menus. Forgot to bring beverages. Well, maybe not forgot, because she passed the table with said beverages not once, but three times for others in our party. Forgot to come back and take my husband and my order multiple times. People in our party who ordered after us, received and finished their food before my husband said something to a different waitress, who apologized and said she's check on it. After about 10 minutes, He then went to talk to Manager who was standing near us, admiring the band. The manager said he'd check on it. In the meantime, someone else in our party seated next to us, had her steak salad taken away by the manager because the steak was purple and could not be cut with a steak knife. Still no food for us, and I'm out of water at this point. And, it's been 1 hour since we ordered our food. During this 1.5 hours, someone from the kitchen who seemed to be a chef, is bringing out food and asking all around the entire restaurant, who ordered this, only to take said food back to the kitchen. Some of our party members leave. We still don't have our food. When our food finally arrives, the different waitress mentioned above, apologizes again and informs us that our meals are completely on the house. Husband's steak was purple and had zero seasoning, except for the sauce drizzled on top. I ordered a club sandwich with tots that took over an hour to arrive from the kitchen that we are seated directly next too. After a few bites of my tots and sandwich, I sample his steak and it sure is flavorless and chewy, like old gum. Both waitresses appear magically together and ask if we want to box up food. I declined because his is covered with his napkin and our original waitress asks if I want more sauces. I respond "No thank you. It took over an hour, 1/2 of our party is gone now and I'm not going to eat while my husband starves." She is trying to force me to eat it, says the kitchen is backed up and says the manager will come talk to me. All of our table's bills were incorrect, well those that received them. We asked for our bill numerous times and never got one, so I loudly state, "since our meals were complimentary, I'd like to pay for our 2 drinks. Still no bill ever came. We've now been here almost 3 hours, and believe our food and drinks are both complimentary because the manager never came to talk to us and still no bill. The different waitress is heard apologizing to other nearby tables that she's sorry for a horrible experience. The band is leaving while we're saying goodbyes and walking out. The original waitress screams across the restaurant "did you want to pay for your drinks?" Embarrassing is the best way to describe that interaction. Especially because the manager was still standing there near the bar, the same manager that never came to talk to me. Husband pays while stating how horrible the service was, and our original waitress who is now at the bar apologizes but reiterates that "I'm sorry you feel this way and that the kitchen was backed up. It's out of our control". Our remaining party members loudly state how horrible the service and some of the food was, within earshot of the manager who is standing there, smiling but not looking at any of us.
We hope this is a one-off because the view overlooking the golf course is amazing. But I'll be damned if we wait over an hour for food, 1/2 of which was inedible and the other was simply a club sandwich, while later members in our party eat and finish; and how we tried to talk to a manager who seems to either not care or is completely oblivious to what happens in the restaurant, except for the admiration of the live band. read more