When the hostess seated us last night we asked her if it was still happy hour. She said, "yes". After ordering a round of drinks, we asked the waiter for the happy hour appetizer menu. He said, "Oh, we don't serve happy hour in the restaurant." He went on to tell us that if we wanted to move to the bar (about 10 feet away), we could order from the happy hour menu and get happy hour prices on our drinks. "You mean we aren't even getting happy hour prices on our drinks?" we ask. "No, you're not." the waiter replies. We ask to speak with the manager.
Eventually the manager arrives and we explain to him that as we were seated the hostess told us it was happy hour. She never explained that happy hour was only good at the bar area. First the manager rolled his own hostess under the bus by saying she is new. Then he rolled US under the bus for not knowing to ask for clarification on where we actually had to stand to be eligible for happy hour. We tried to explain that we also wanted to order dinner and that even if we couldn't order appetizers off the happy hour menu, we felt they should honor the happy hour prices for the drinks. The manager was firm and said he could not fix the situation.
We asked the manager to give us his name and the name of the owner of the restaurant. We told him we planned to write the owner a letter and voice our complaint about the way we were treated. Incredibly, the manager replied, "He won't care."
Finally and at long last I've met an honest man; he's ignorant, stupid, short-sighted and rude, but by God at least he's HONEST!
So "good-bye" Amaranta Cocina Mexicana. There are plenty of other places in LA to eat that DO care about having us as customers As for happy hour, I'll definitely enjoy one when I hear Amaranta has imploded and gone out of business. Judging from the empty tables and their new "we don't care" motto, the wait shouldn't be too long. In fact, I can see the finish line just over the next hill ....
Pros: Great margies
Cons: They don't care.
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