The wife and I went to K.C.'s in Squirrel Hill Saturday evening. In spite of a good review by Woodene and His Honor, it looked interesting and we decided to give it a try. Short review: good food, lousy service. Hole in the wall place on Murray Ave, plainly decorated. BYOB. Long review: We had an 8 pm concert, so we called and made reservations for 6:15 and were assured it would be "no problem." We mention this to the server when he seats us and he tells us, "Well, I can't control the kitchen. Everybody else in here is in a hurry too." It quickly becomes obvious that the kitchen won't be the only problem. There are two servers for the approximately 12 tables and things are running a little slow. The waiter pulled one of my favorite stupid waiter tricks, dropping off the menus, giving us more than adequate time to examine them, then coming back to recite the specials. (Is there some reason a restaurant can't print a one page listing of the specials and tuck it in the menu, instead of going through this particular inane little ritual?) The wife orders grilled lamb chops, I ask for the mediterranean pasta, (bow ties w/ tuna, black olives, artichokes, feta, etc). We mention again that we'd like to be out by 7:40, which is still over an hour away. The salads came relatively quickly. They were a nicely done mixture of greens, (including beet tops) with a nice peppercorn dressing. Then came the wait. We probably finished the salads by about 5-10 minutes till 7. We sat. The salad plates were removed. We sat. We flagged the waiter down to ask for more bread and water and to remind him that we really needed to go by 7:40. "I can't control the kitchen." We sat. It's been half an hour now since the salads and we're alternating between being pissed and laughing hysterically at yet another bad Pittsburgh restaurant experience. The table next to us had ordered shortly after we sat down. They've already gone. The food showed up about 7:25. Hot off the grill? Ha. Not cold, but lukewarm. The waiter asks if we want the food reheated. Not being willing to take a chance on waiting another hour, we turn him down and let him know what a bad joke this place is. He says he can't control the kitchen. I say the manager had better figure out how to control the kitchen. He says that he is the manager. That explains a lot. We're shoveling the food down when some lady walks over. She says that she's the manager (another one, I guess), she's been sick, she thought everything was under control, this is their busy time, etc. We repeat that we had made reservations and had specifically asked about being served in time, and that an hour and a half is not unreasonable for dinner in any event. Her attitude seems to be that it's all our fault. I suppose it is, expecting to get served in a restaurant. Bill came to $35 plus a *small* tip. Anyhow, we wolfed the food, skipped dessert, and made the concert. We won't make this mistake again. Is there anybody in this town who knows how to run a damned restaurant? Are all waiters trained as Giant Eagle cashiers? Chris
Pittsburgh, PA