poor service with mediocre food and drinks...
Friday, June 01, 2007
i've been looking for some latenight spots in downtown for a good drink with reasonably priced foods. having read the reviews, i decided to go check it out with a friend. when we got there, no one greeted us for a few mins so we decided to go and sit at the bar. at the bar, we were not acknowledged for 5 mins, and the place was only about half full. we noticed that the manager and the "bartenders" (i only used quotations because we couldnt decide if they were just servers who poured drinks for their own tables) were having a these endless conversations while ignoring those seated at the bar. then as i finally got the attention of one of the people behind the bar, another patron came up to complain to the manager who was behind the bar at the moment. the odd thing was that this lady who was complaining about the lack of service to the manager was suddenly confronted by the server/bartender who had served her. instead of asking her server to step away while she had the conversation with the patron, the manager allowed the server to stand there and argue with the customer who appeared to have very valid complaints (slow service, wrong / missing items on bill, argumentative server). this all the while another server was seated at the bar folding linens while watching a game on the tv.
having worked in food service when i was younger, this all points to poor management that i allowing her crew to get lazy and belligerent.
but having said that, after all that one of the servers realized that we were sitting there for close to 15 mins by that time without a drink or even a menu, and he proceeded to offer some service at that point on. overall, i would say that the food was average, the service (barring our final server) was poor and if i was the owner of this establishment, i would seriously reconsider the manager on that particular shift.
Pros: late menu
Cons: poor service