Opening here to share dining experiences that were outstanding examples of service that simply wowed you.
To the point where you would have gladly left a thousand dollar tip if it were in your budget.
The most recent and memorable for me was when Pixilated and her daughters and I were in New Orleans for a weekend. After a refreshing and vigorous round of debate (Where do you want to go? I don’t care, wherever you want to go. Doesn’t matter to me, you choose. No, you choose.) we settled on Greek since none of them had ever had it.
A quick browse through Garmin revealed a few places near our hotel so off we went. The first we went to was closed. Permanently. Undaunted we proceeded to the second listing and found ourselves at a little hole-in-the-wall cafe in a nondescript shopping plaza. Nothing about the appearance to inspire confidence in our choice, but we figured what the hell, we were here.
We went in and grabbed ourselves a booth. The only other people at the table across the room were just about as stereotypical a Greek family as you could ever hope to see. The waitress brought our menus and there were all of about two dishes listed that I’d even heard of so we asked questions about what most of the other dishes were. Apparently we drew the attention of the other customers because one of the ladies there who could only be described as matronly came over to assist. Turns out the other group was the family that ran the restaurant we were at and she was the owner/cook/deity in charge. She told us about some of the dishes and made some suggestions and we made our selections. Long story short, our glasses were never empty and the food was fantastic.
When we had eaten all we could pack in we got our to-go containers and the bill. Paid the bill, about 75 bucks IIRC and left a $20 tip. We got up to leave and as we got to the door momma chef hollers at us to wait a minute. We turn around and she’s pulling something out of the dessert display and loading up another to-go box that she gives us with a big smile.
Wish I lived closer to NO so we could eat there often.
I don’t have anything that approaches a thousand-dollar tip, but my experience at Red Robin has always been good. I still remember one Saturday in particular when I went to have lunch by myself, and wound up sitting at the bar. I don’t drink alcohol, but the bartender was wonderfully attentive. I got immediate drink refills, my food came quickly, and she left me alone when I read the book I’d brought but was extremely friendly when I chatted with her. I left her a big tip, especially since she was juggling me (being the only person at the bar) and filling a constant stream of drink orders from the other servers.
My husband and I were antique-shopping on Westheimer in Houston, on a 90-degree-plus, 90%-plus humidity day. We were dripping with sweat and thirsty. We stopped at the Ohio Grange Cafe for a soft drink. We weren’t dressed well – jeans and T-shirts – but it was mid-afternoon and we were only going to sit at the bar and have a Diet Coke. The place just knocked me out, all copper and wood. I wanted to move in. Except we couldn’t even get in. The creep at the door told us the soft-drink machine was “broken” so he couldn’t serve us. Uh-huh.
We went across the street to a place called Affresco, in a renovated church. The maitre d’ treated us as if we were his long-lost rich relatives and he our only heir. He seated us at a prime table where we could admire the beautiful murals on the ceiling, got us our drinks, put some music on for us as we were the only customers, and introduced us to several of his staff members.
We came back the next night with our Houston hosts and blew a couple hundred bucks on a fine, fine dinner with exquisite service. Our waiter’s name was Javier. He got a big tip.
Affresco is no more. And neither is the Ohio Grange Cafe.
I’ll second that. They make a bitchin’ burger, and the service was excellent. However, the Kid Factor was more than I can handle. I shall not dine in at Red Robin again. Too bad, because it’s a great place otherwise.
True that. We had dinner there last night and were seated in an area of the restaurant that was relatively quiet (for Red Robin, that’s still pretty loud) and nice…except for the family with the bunch of kids sitting right next to us. At least the mother had sense enough to bring them under control when one got bored and started shrieking.
They offer bottomless fries, which is enough for us to cope with the noise.
A new restaurant opened in our town a while ago – right at the beginning of the slow season. It was an out-of-town family that opened it, and I was pessimistic but curious.
I went in and found a full bar with pub-style seating. I grabbed a chair and a menu and the owner came up and introduced himself. We got into a lively chat about beer before I ordered. As I was leaving, he asked how everything was and what I thought of his beer selection. I told him it was great, and my only disappointment was that he didn’t have any Scottish ale on tap.
SIX WEEKS later I went in for the second time. The owner greeted me by name and asked if I wanted to try the Scottish ale he had on tap. I’m a regular now.
The Red Robin in north-western Vegas’ service almost makes up for the noise level. If you ever get Danielle, thank your lucky stars. That lady goes above and beyond every minute of every shift, for every customer in the building.
The Tillerman in Vegas has outstanding, absolutely perfect service in an high-end restaurant.
Cozymel’s in San Diego (maybe La Jolla?) service was flawless, and especially impressive because it was horrifically busy, and is a mid-range chain restaurant.
Up the Creek in Minot, ND (our new locales favorite, midrange chain) has superb service, and very attentive management. On the sole occasion there was a problem, it seemed like the entire staff busted their butts to more than make up for the issue.
I’m afraid I must apoligize. Pixilated informs me we were in Dallas for that particular experience. I looked and I’ve already deleted that entry from the Garmin so I’m unable to look it up. Sorry.