Horrible Experience! Olives in Las Vegas

As part of our 1st anniversary celebration my wife and I spent a few days in Vegas.  As LV has turned into a serious restaurant town we were faced with a dilemma as to where we should dine.

Walking through the Bellagio shops I took a few minutes to peruse to menu at Olives.  WOW!!!  We HAD to eat there...the menu descriptions were too interesting!

I was able to get a reservation for 9:15, and we were promptly seated in the gorgeous room.  Our waitress arrived in a few minutes and presented us with our menus.  The evening went downhill from there.

She asked if we wanted cocktails, but we were still perusing the wine list.  We asked for ice water with lemon.  We received 2 glasses of water, no ice, no lemon.  We asked for some lemon.  It arrived some 10 minutes later, with a busboy dumping it on our table.

We looked over the wine list and menu.  While the prices were high compared to other restaurants we have enjoyed (Coyote Cafe, the various Pinots, Patina), the offerings were impressive.  We sat with our wine list and menus for another 10 minutes with nary a word from the service staff.

When the waitress finally came back to us we ordered our meal and a bottle of '98 Pinot Noir.  We asked that it be brought out and opened well in advance of our appetizers to allow sufficient time to breathe.  My wife also pointed out a chip on the rim of her water glass and requested a replacement.

About the same time I noticed that all the other tables had what appeared to be baskets full of yummy-looking bread and a side dish of olives.  We had no such treats on our table.  Eventually the busboy plopped our bread and olives on the table.  They were every bit as delicious as they looked, but later when the waitress picked them up she left a huge puddle of olive oil that had gathered under the bowl.

The sommelier arrived with our Pinot Noir, which as expected was still pretty raw.  We asked to let it sit in the bottle, but she went ahead and poured our glasses, saying "oh...it will breathe fine in the glass".  This would be the last time anyone other than ourselves would pour wine at our table.

Ten minutes later the wine was still raw, and my wife still had an undrinkable glass of water.  The olives were leaving her a little thirsty, so we searched in vain for our waitress or a busboy.  The sommelier noticed us and asked if she could help.  We informed her that we were still waiting for the replacement glass of water, which she brought to the table.  This is the last we would see of her all evening.

Our food arrived, and it was every bit as good as the menu had led us to hope for.  Unfortunately the service continued to be abysmal.  The guys delivering the food were fine, but our waitress was nowhere to be found...not there to pour the wine, not there to ask if everything was satisfactory.  At no point did she show the least bit of enthusiasm for the food or her patrons.

The bus staff was equally inattentive.  Empty plates were left sitting on the table way too long.  No one came by to pour more water, despite passing my empty glass several times through the course of the evening. As previously stated, we were left to pour our own wine.

We watched another table where the waiter picked up the signed credit card receipt and openend the wallet to check his tip right in front of the table!

As we neared completion of our entrees, my wife asked the waitress to box up her remaining pasta to take with us.  We were left sitting at the table for another 10 minutes, empty and near-empty plates in front of us the entire time.  Finally the waitress came back, and asked my wife if she wanted her leftovers wrapped up to take home!  HELLO?!?!?!?

The end result?  Two appetizers, two entrees, a dessert and a bottle of wine set us back $148 with tax.  Unfortunately we had received superior service a couple of nights before when my in-laws took us to Olive Garden in Victorville of all places!  I left a tip of $1.99.

I kept thinking maybe our expectations were too high...maybe the consistently excellent service we were used to receiving at our favorite premium restaurants was not the norm.  But I gave up that line of thought real quick.  We choose to splurge at top flight restaurants for the entire experience...the food and the room and being well taken care of by attentive, professional servers.

Apparently Olives in Las Vegas thinks that as long as the food and room and dancing Bellagio fountains are incredible you will overlook the slapdash, unprofessional service they provide.

In our book they could not be more wrong, and we will never step foot in their restaurants again.  Next time in Vegas my hard-earned $$$ are going to Mark Miller's Coyote Cafe and Joachim Splichal and his Pinot empire. All his locations are among the finest restaurants we've ever enjoyed.

Synth-cerely,

Lee Sebel / GearHo! Productions
Keyboardist, synthesist, clinician and composer
I make music the old-fashioned way...I PLAY IT!

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