We were with a group of 8, ready to eat, drink and have a fun night. I don't know if this was the first group of 8 our waiter ever had or if he just didn't care. Four of us ordered drinks while waiting for the others. 15 minutes later, one of us had a drink, the other 3 were still waiting. Bread was tossed down on the table and our waiter disappeared. My husband went and hunted down someone to get balsamic vinegar and grabbed a pepper mill on his way back to the table.. Entree's came - it was as if the chef was on an austerity program. One dish didn't have a single artichoke as listed on the menu, one had 3 pine nuts in the whole dish, 2 chicken caccciatore had no sauce on the pasta. When grated cheese was offered and accepted by all 8, the waiter ran out after one dish and disappeared. Came later, did another couple of dishes and disappeared, came later and did a couple more. Nuts! Two guests were out of ice tea and ignored so my friend got up and grabbed a pitcher and brought it to the table. No ice in the glasses but hey, can't be picky, right? I realize the waiter doesn't control the kitchen but he does control the attention given to any table. Perhaps he was happy with the automatic tip that's billed to a table of that size...but he could have done so much better.
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