The food is excellent. Nothing else is. The service was horrible. The wait was intolerable (and about an hour longer than it had to be due to seating errors by the staff). Our group of 4 arrived Saturday night at 7:05 pm, and placed out name on the list. We were fifth up the list, with only ONE other table for four ahead of us. They only HAVE two tables for four this night because a group of 15 is taking up half the restaurant. As tables for two begin to clear (two of them, on opposite sides of the restaurant, are paying bills and preparing to leave), one of the two tables for four is cleared and then a party of TWO is seated there, at 9:10 pm. That table should have been ours. They should KNOW they have a dearth of larger tables, and taht smaller tables are about to come available! They should have had the party of two wait another 5 minutes (by now there were FOUR tables for two were empty and waiting to be bussed), while seating us there. As it turned out, three from the party of fifteen remained at the table after there meal. Most of their party had left, but they sat there chatting away, tying up the whole restaurant and making us wait. The staff did NOTHING to even try to break up that table, reset part of it, and allow them to converse on only part of it, without tying up half the tables in this already-too-small establishment. Meanwhile, there are now THREE empty tables for two at odd corners of the restaunt. No way to bring them together. Three people at a table for fifteen chatting for two hours. And nine names on the waiting list, all for parties of 3 or more. We should have been seated at 9:10. We WERE seated at 10:25, after arriving more than three hours earlier, all due to a clueless maitre'd who cost that restaurant six seats' worth of meals that could have been served had she known how to manage a small number of tables. We had to wait for the chatty three to leave and free up half the restaurant. So, seated at 10:25, I'm not brought a menu. My companions are, but not me. I politley ask for a menu. None comes. My wife gets up to get me one. My menu arrives via maitre'd five minutes LATER. (How tough is it to wait 12 tables, ma'am?) We order quickly, as its now far too late to eat a large meal. Our entrees started to arrive at 11:15. It finished arriving at 11:40. Yes, that's right, they served the first entree and made us sit there while they finished my wife's dish, almost half an hour later. That was clearly unacceptable. "We'll take that to go, please. Can you split this check, my wife and I on one check, the other couple on another". "Certainly, but we'll add 18% service carge to the check for split checks". It certainly wasn't worth 18%. They couldn't even keep my water glass full. (The server filled three of four glasses at our table each trip, ignoring my glass each time). I told them to stick their 18% up their ass (politely) and to just give us a single check. I did NOT tip. The food was excellent. Or would have been, two hours earlier. By then, I was too annoyed to even give the food a decent appraisal or chance. Advice: IF you must go (I advise that you not), they WILL take reservations for parties of six or more ONLY. Make sure you go with five friends, and get a reservation. It simply isn't worth the wait otherwise. Jeffrey L. Woods PO Box 1554 Cary, NC 27513
Raleigh-Durham, NC