For some assurance of the validity of my claims, I literally created an account on Yelp to post my experience at Williwaw.
Arrived here around noon on a Saturday for lunch. After walking in the front door, there was no indication of open seating or a "wait to be seated" sign. We had to locate a staff member to find out it was open seating. After sitting down, it took about 10 minutes for someone to come to the table to bring menus and take our drink order. We ordered water which took another 10 minutes to be delivered. When the water came, we asked about a few sandwiches on the lunch menu, to which we were told that 3 of the 10 available sandwiches were out of stock. We then ordered a monte cristo sandwich, which on their menu is described as:
""Monte Cristo ... $12
Hawaiian sweet bread dipped in egg batter and grilled to perfection, layered with ham, turkey and cheddar, served with a side of guava jelly
Served with a cup of soup, chips, or potato salad""
Sounded good. It took about 20 minutes for the sandwich to come out. When it arrived, the sandwich was literally nothing more than a poorly executed grilled ham and cheese. There was no way it was Hawaiian sweet bread, and no way it was dipped in any egg batter. Nor was it grilled to perfection. The entire sandwich was room temperature, the cheese was not melted, the ham was near cold, the turkey was not even there, and we did not receive a side of guava jelly. We had to wait another 5 minutes to see ANYONE that worked at the restaurant to flag them down in order to ask for the side of guava jelly, which took another 5 minutes to be brought out. The side cup of soup was a "homemade spicy mushroom" which was barely even warm. After debating the risks of sending food back at a restaurant, we stupidly decided to try it. The taste of the mushroom soup was actually decent if you could get past eating room temperature soup. The only way to make the sandwich edible was to smother it in the guava jelly. (Hopefully you can see the photo I took of the lame excuse for a Monte Cristo sandwich)
After choking down the soup and sandwich (split by two people) our waiter came back over and asked if we were ready for the check. We said yes. It took about 10 minutes for the waiter to bring the check over. (These wait times sound crazy, but I assure you, they are very accurate.) As soon as the waiter dropped the check off, I instantly gave him my credit card in an effort to speed the process up. About 5 minutes go by, and a different man (who seemed to possibly be the manager, being dressed in jeans and a button up shirt with authoritative keys dangling from his pocket) came to the table with my credit card and receipt and said, "Here." and just dropped the clipboard with my card and receipt on the table, and walked away. Wow. What great interpersonal skills. We signed the receipt and left.
To be fair to the waiter, it looked as if he was the ONLY waiter on duty for the ENTIRE restaurant. At around noon on a Saturday, there were about 12-15 tables with hungry customers. The restaurant itself was a very nice atmosphere in downtown Anchorage, with nice tables and a clean setup. However, with all of the other available dining options in downtown, I would suggest staying away from this place until they have had some time to get their stuff together as a new restaurant. We dine out a lot, and this was definitely one of the top worst dining experiences we have ever had. Wish I could say better things, as I love having new businesses/restaurants show up in Anchorage, but not today. read more