I have been to Tao about 5 times over the past few years. I have always gone with a party of 2 and have never had any complaints.
This time - I reserved a table for 8. I contacted the Maitre'D the day of the reservation to explain and confirm they could accomodate 5 of us sitting at our reservation start time and the other 3 arriving a half hour later. He said -- NO PROBLEM SEE ME WHEN YOU ARRIVE.
So - We arrive exactly on time, and Eric, the Maitre'D was super friendly and gave me a pager and said our table would be ready shortly.
30 Minutes go by and nothing...So - I go to the front desk and there is a blond hostess who won't even look me in the eye when speaking to me. I explain that we have been waiting for 30 minutes for our table we had reserved for 7pm. She immediately says ""Well you are 30 minutes late for your reservation!"" without even looking at me. I question her and say what does she mean. She proceeds to say that since the other 3 people in my party had not arrived that we cannot be seated and I am late and there is nothing they can do... I explain that I worked this out with the Maitre'D and she again without even looking me in the eye says you might as well wait till your party arrives cause you are not getting a table any time soon. I tell her that she is actually being quite rude. She, again, without looking up, says ""I apologize if you feel that way"".
At this point, the Maitre D' returns and says we are next table and will be sat any moment.
Then my brother arrives (my additional party of 3) and they end up speaking to the rude hostess. My brother says he is here for my party and that we are probably already sitting. She tells them without looking at them ""Well your brother is a liar then cause he said his entire party was here"".
She called me a LIAR to my family member. What kind of customer service is this????
I see Eric again, the Maitre D and I tell him what happened. He listened but i can honestly say I dont think he cared... We ended up getting a table a half an hour later.
I was tempted to leave but I had my whole family there.
I must say - I will never return to Tao as a result of that Hostess... It's people like this that can spoil a night. Now I am telling the world what happened and hopefully some of you won't go to Tao as a result of my story and then maybe Tao will learn to hire friendlier people.
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