We took my friend there for her bachelorette party the other night. We paid the $7 cover and were lucky enough to get a table. The bucket drinks were strong and tasty but it was really hard to get service. We all pitched in money to get a song for the bachelorette -- about $30. We gave our money and our request to the piano guy. About an hour later, they still hadn't played the song, so one of our group went up and asked about it and was pretty much brushed off. Another 30 minutes or so later, some of the people in our party needed to leave, but they kept waiting at the end of each song to see if ours would be next. Finally, we were really annoyed we hadn't heard the song we'd paid for and the waitress said she thought we could probably get our money back. We were all kind of afraid to go up there and get the money back, but didn't want it to just go to waste. Finally one of our girls went up and told the piano guy we had to leave and he let us take the money back, but he was obviously *not* pleased.
I realize the money you pay for songs is considered a "tip" and not straight up payment for a service. However, these guys create the system by announcing "hey everyone, this is what a $50 bill looks like! Happy birthday so-and-so!" So everyone knows you have to pay to hear your song or have your guest of honor go up on the stage. If these guys had no intention of playing the song for our friend on her bachelorette party, they should have said so when we submitted the request. Our $30 may not be as good as $50, but it's not chump change, either. Taking it back was embarassing, but I'm glad we did it, so those jerks didn't get our money for nothing. Thanks for ruining what was supposed to be the highlight of my friend's bachelorette.
We ended up leaving and spending the rest of our night at Fado, where frankly the band was better anyway.
Pros: Stiff drinks, talented musicians
Cons: Bad service, rip-off, hot, crowded
more