My wife and I loved this place and have come to Reef for three of our past anniversaries. I used to recommend this restaurant to everyone. I say loved and used to because of our last experience there. \r
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I booked a table for our anniversary, but they must have overlooked the note. I'm not the kind of person who gets too upset over simple mistakes--my wife waited tables from greasy spoons to fine dining--so I'm pretty lenient. We were given the check, and I realized that he didn't know it was our anniversary. When the waiter finally made eye contact (he had been at our table a total of 5 minutes the entire evening), I told him, and he said he would take care of it and be right back. Fifteen minutes pass...nothing. Now, we had already eaten our meal, payed, and were sitting at a dirty table. On my way from the restroom, I see our waiter yelling at the manager with his finger in his face holding our comped milkshakes (if you've been there you know what I'm talking about). I also see my wife sitting alone...how about less yelling, more bringing. At this point I'm feeling really uneasy about dealing with this person at all, so I walk to our table and ask my wife if she's ready to leave. On the way out of the dining room, the waiter looks at me, puts our shakes in the window, and storms off ...a final 'forget you!'. I tell the front desk person that this was a terrible night, and she says 'well the manager was coming to your table'. Was this 15 or 20 mintues ago? We then go to the valet, and I see the manager yelling at her instead of coming out to say sorry. I mean we're five feet away. It was so bad, that I booked another restaurant the next night and surprised my wife with a second anniversary dinner. \r
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But the story doesn't end there. The bar ran my tab twice, so I called the manager the following day. I told him what had happened the previous night and he let me know he was the manager on duty. He said 'it was a Saturday night so he was a little busy which probably kept him from getting to our table in time'. He also told me that the waiter was indeed yelling at him because of the missed anniversary and that when they saw us walking out there was nothing they could do. I told him maybe you could have said you're sorry. He then apologized and said I hope you give Reef another chance. He also assured me that the charges would drop off in the next day or two, but to call back if they didn't. \r
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Now I don't run a restaurant, but I want more of a gesture than 'give us another shot'. I just chose your restaurant for our anniversary so that you could make my wife feel like she was picked last for kickball. I also got to see people yelling at each other on my account which made me uneasy and frustrated. The manager could have offered me an appetizer, dessert...some kind of incentive to get me back through their doors. I don't need to save the money. I just want to feel comfortable coming back. Which, unfortunately, I don't. As a result, I won't be going back or recommending Reef to anyone.
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