Good afternoon,
I originally wrote you almost two weeks ago with concerns we have about a recent visit to the <snip> location. I apologize for my delay in writing back. I had to unexpectedly leave town for several days. I will tell you about our concerns. I will leave it in your judgment if it requires attention by the owner, Mr.<snip>. I believe it may.
On January 5, my wife and I went to the <snip> location for a Sunday brunch. The brunch hours in <snip> are 11AM to 3PM. In the past, we had always made reservations for 12 Noon. However, even with reservations we had to wait to be seated for at least another 10 minutes after noon. So, for this brunch we decided to make our reservations at 1PM. From our past experience by this time the restaurant would quiet down and we would not encounter a problem getting a table. As well, with only being 1/2 way through the brunch, we should not have any problem with the food selection.
We arrived on time for our reservations. Upon arriving, we stood in the foyer and waited to be seated. Standing next to us were some gentlemen that were preparing to leave, and a staff member (obviously so as he was in a chef-type outfit) were chatting about snowboarding. We waited, the gentlemen that was chatting did not seat us but after a couple of minutes a young lady came out from the kitchen and proceeded to seat us. This was not much of a concern, as we assumed the staff member speaking to the customers that were leaving was a cook, and obviously it is not a cooks job to seat patrons. The young lady must have been the hostess.
As we sat we noticed that only 5 or 6 tables had customers at them. I was genuinely surprised to see how “quiet” it was as I usually see the restaurant bustling with activity. Shortly after we sat, a polite waitress came by and asked if we would like coffee, which we did. We also ordered our juice at this time. The waitress asked if we would care for some cream and sugar. We indicated that we would, so she said that she would be right back with some.
My wife and I went and helped ourselves to the buffet. If I recall correctly, there were 8 “hot tray” items in addition to the usual assortment of cold items and desserts. We immediately went to the breakfast side. I went to help myself to ham rolls. There were none, the tray was completely empty. I went to help myself to Eggs Benedict. There were only 3 left in the entire tray. So, I took 2 and helped myself to French Toast (of which there was plenty) and ordered an omelet. On my way back to the table, I walked past my wife. She was speaking to the fellow in the “Chef” outfit that was talking about snowboarding earlier. She mentioned that there were no ham rolls and only 1 Eggs Benedict left. The fellow said, “Do you want it?” She said eventually, but not at the moment. She thought she would just tell him that 2 foods were empty. He replied, “OK.”
We went back to our table and ate what we brought. We had our coffee and juice, but no cream and sugar was brought to our table. We ate most of our meal and our cream and sugar still did not arrive. I went up front and asked another waitress for some, she promptly gave it to me.
After we ate our meal, we went back to the buffet area and started to help ourselves with the lunch items.
If memory serves, the 4 trays consisted of:
Wild Game Stew
Lasagna
Another Pasta (I don’t recall what type)
Arctic Char and a sauce (I believe it was Char - it was a fish dish)
Out of which, the Arctic char and pasta were completely empty. There was plenty of the stew however, but it didn’t look too appetizing to us. The lasagna was quite dried out and the entire serving end of the spoon was a solid piece of dried out lasagna.
Quite literally, there was nothing much to eat for lunch entrees. My wife decided to have the last piece of Eggs Benedict in the tray and I had a couple of slices of French Toast. The waitress came to fill up our coffee and asked if everything was OK. I advised her that 2 of the lunch items were completely empty and there was little left for breakfast (no eggs benedict, no ham rolls. There was just Bacon and French toast). She apologized and said she would check into it. Shortly after the hostess that seated us came by and apologized. She assured us that they were very aware that the items were low and the kitchen was actually in the process of making some new batches, but it would be another few minutes. We were fine with that.
We waited 20 minutes (we timed it) and nobody came by to tell us the food was ready. My wife however was hungry and went to the buffet to check herself and see what was now available. Nothing more was out. She approached the fellow in the “chef” outfit again, who by this time was seated with another gentleman and talking about snowboarding again. She mentioned that nothing was out. At this time, I heard from my table (the opposite end of the restaurant in the room with the fireplace, as far from the food and kitchen one could be) the gentlemen in the Chef outfit “yelling” into the kitchen (and this is verbatim) “I need a half order of some kind of fish!” – waited a few seconds and then again, “I NEED A HALF ORDER OF SOME KIND OF FISH!”
After a minute, the fellow came out and told my wife that they had no fish. He said, and I quote, “Fish, you know, is difficult to get in Alberta, being in the prairies.” He then proceeded to say that “some kind of pasta” would be prepared instead of the fish. He then went back to the table with his friend.
I helped myself to a dessert. The dessert table was quite well picked over (the “choice” items appeared to be gone but this was not a huge issue with me). My wife, whom was still hungry checked the other trays to see if any were refilled yet. Absolutely none. No Eggs Benedict, no ham rolls, no pasta. Only the dried out lasagna and stew were available. She went back to our table and waited. Another 15 minutes went by and the waitress came by and said some Pasta was ready. There was a ravioli pasta but no serving spoon. So, she had to grab a serving spoon from another tray. Back at the table, she started to eat it. Shecomplained to me that it was bland. I had a portion to confirm, and it was. The Ravioli was stuffed with something but it was not cheese nor any kind of meat. It was a paste that was almost like wet flour (although I don’t believe it was indeed just flour, it was just completely tasteless). The waitress came by again and asked how everything was. I told her that while we were quite pleased with her service, we were not at all happy with the food that day. She apologized and said she would get the manager to do something with the bill. We were OK with this. She went to the gentlemen inthe chef uniform that had been talking about snowboarding; he was the manager.
After a few minutes, she came back and said the manager took a whopping $4 off of our bill. We looked at the waitress and asked if this was correct. She said yes, but he also took the juice off of the bill. I told her that during our past brunches, juice was included. She said that “We must have had a nice waitress.” I believe she was implying that the previous waitresses should not have included juice in the price of the brunch. We paid the bill.
As we were walking out the door, the manager said to our backs, “Have a nice day and sorry about the wait!” While he did not sound sarcastic, I found it ironic that the only time he spoke to us (other than the fish “incident”) was as we were leaving.
To Summarize:
-
We waited a few minutes to get seated while the “Manager” chatted with his friends. This in itself is not a big issue with us.
-
We had to get our own cream and sugar for our coffee. This was really the only concern we had with the waitress. She was otherwise prompt and polite (other than telling us Juice should have been charged, but she was polite).
-
1/2 the breakfast entrees were empty. The Manager was well aware of this as we brought it to his attention when we first arrived, but he did nothing.
-
1/2 the lunch entrees were totally empty. The manager was aware of this as well. The other two were either dried out or unappetizing (this is of course personal preference).
-
We were told that the kitchen was aware that the food was empty and was in the process of cooking more. This was false as no food came out except after more than 1/2 an hour, and even then it was only 1 dish (the pasta).
-
The manager shouted into the kitchen “WE NEED A HALF ORDER OF SOME KIND OF FISH!” Not once, but twice. To be honest, while I was seated at the table and heard that I laughed to myself. I had a hard time believing my ears. Upon reflection, it was anything but professional.
-
The manager actually told my wife that “Fish is hard to get in Alberta.” This is ridiculous.
-
The mentioning that “some kind of pasta” would be prepared did not sound appetizing, and further lowered our perception of the manager’s professionalism.
-
While we were waiting for the food to get re-filled (which never
happened), the Manager sat with his “friend” chatting the whole time. Management styles differ of course, but that did not seem proper to me as there was obviously a problem as more than half of the entrees were empty.
-
The Manager gave us $4 off of our meal. My wife and I both sat waiting patiently for well over 45 minutes for food that never came even though we were told it was coming. Was our time only worth $4?
-
The Manager “kindly” gave us “free” juice with our meal. Strangely enough, juice has always been included with our past brunches. An item to note, the Orange Juice at this location has always tasted “watered” down. Since the other juices have always been fine, I just left it as quirk of the restaurant in the past, but I think it is worth mentioning.
I believe that I understand with a Buffet style meal it may be difficult to judge the amount of food to make. However, we made our reservations for 1PM, only 2 hours after the buffet started and 2 hours before it closed. If we came in at 2:30 I would be a little more understanding of the selection of the food (although I don’t believe it would be any more proper).
To be quite honest, we are not regular patrons in the sense that we go there every week. While we appreciate fine cuisine, we’ve only been to the <snip> location 7 or 8 times since opening and the <snip> location twice. However, after this experience, we have absolutely no intention whatsoever of patronizing the restaurant again. We do not want anything from the restaurant. The purpose of the letter is just to let someone know about it in hopes that similar instances like this won’t happen to any other of your patrons.
Best regards,
bernse
For me as a financially challenged college student, I really try to get my money’s worth. If there is a special event in which I would be shelling out that kind of money for brunch (not being cheap mind you, just can’t afford to spend money on stuff like that normally) I sure as heck better be getting 25 dollars worth of food/service/atmosphere. I don’t mind paying more for better things occasionallly, but I always strive to make sure that if I’m going to pay 50% more, it will (hopefully) be 50% better in quality.