What a disappointment. On my birthday, of all days, my husband and I decided to try a new (to us) restaurant. He had heard about Olives from someone, so we looked up the website. The menu looked fantastic, so we called to get a table. We were there within 5 minutes of our expected time, but the waitress, who even remembered talking to my husband, had already given our table away. A few minutes later, she waved us over. Yes, she waved. She didn’t come over and ask us to follow her. This is not a huge restaurant. It wouldn’t have been asking too much. Anyway, we settled, with our three kids, into a very cramped table.
The menu still looked great, and we should know, since we had more than enough time to look at it. After at least 15 minutes, the waitress finally came to take our drink order. We bothered her to take our food order, as well. She asked my husband and both older kids if they wanted fries or chips, but she didn’t mention that their meals came with chips, and that fries were a $2.00 upcharge. Nice surprise when we got our bill later. Frankly, asking my husband is one thing. He’s an adult and can make those choices. But to ask my kids, to give them a choice, without our permission, is bad form. Since we ordered an appetizer (goat cheese—not terribly kid-friendly), she asked if we would like her to bring the kids’ food out as soon as it was ready. Great idea. Unfortunately, 15 minutes later we had a bowl of fries unceremoniously plopped onto our table. “On the house” she says. Okay, but why? And to tell you the truth, we’d rather have the food we’d ordered, and guess what? There are fries with 3 out of the four meals coming. However, we were happy to have the fries to keep our kids’ mouths busy. If you think it’s rough waiting for a long time to get your food, try doing it with three kids under 7. Well, we finished the fries, and spent another 10 minutes after that waiting. Our appetizer came out, and we enjoyed it, but it wasn’t spectacular. We’ve had the same thing at Vitale’s on Leonard and it was better. Anyway, after we were finished, the kids’ meals came out. We then sat and watched them eat. Do you know how slowly little kids eat? And still, we watched them finish their meals, and still waited a few minutes for our meals to come out. Then they sat and watched us eat.
I wish I could say that it was worth the wait. My husband ordered the Whimpy Burger, which was described as three mini burgers with bacon and bleu cheese. He didn’t realize that they meant bacon on one of them, and bleu cheese on another, but that’s what he got. I ordered a chicken dish (can’t remember what it’s called, and it’s been taken off the menu…..kudos to them for that, at least), which was stuffed with a goat cheese mixture and served with a red pepper cream sauce. I honestly can’t remember what it was served with, which kind of speaks for itself. The chicken was dry, and the sauce was bland and somewhat pastey. It was definately too thick to help with the dryness of the meat. It was a disappointing end to a long night.
But the worst was yet to come. We had a certificate from restaurant.com, which we had given to the waitress, and which she failed too deduct. We realized this at the same time that we saw the upcharge for the fries. Here’s a question: If you are trying to make up for some delay in the kitchen, wouldn’t it make more sense to comp our appetizer than to give us a bowl of the same thing that three of us already ordered with our meal? Or offer a free dessert? Something? There wasn’t even an apology for the long wait.
What’s worse is that I gave the management two chances to make it right. We didn’t say anything that night, because we had three little ones to get home, eat some cake, and get to bed. But a couple of days later, I emailed the manager and detailed our experience to him. I fully expected to hear back with at least an apology. Well, that was nearly two months ago, and nothing. We also received a survey from restaurant.com, and I rated it honestly and left a note that I had already left word with the manager about our experience, and still, nothing. It’s truly hard for me to believe that a restaurant that couldn’t care less about their customers’ experience, doesn’t have great food, and has lousy service is still in business. I’m telling you, avoid this restaurant at all costs. You can do so much better elsewhere. Why, you ask, did I give them two stars instead of one? We didn’t get food poisoning. You have to give credit where credit is due, after all.