My family and I had been planning an night out for New Year’s Eve. We initially said there would only be 7 people but had to change it to 8 to include another friend. When we arrived, they hurridly threw two tables together in a nearby corner even though we had made reservations. While we waited 5 minutes for another chair the rest of us sat down and looked at the menu in the extremely dim lighting. After ordering I realized I was the only one without an appetizer plate. I requested one and promptly got one about 7 minutes later, only it was half the size of everybody elses. After finishing our drinks and requesting more we swiftly were brought our drinks only AFTER our appetizers were brought out. One particular member of our party did not recieve his WATER that he requested so he asked politely again. Not recieving the water he asked for, the waiter took his order and left to place it in. We sat and waited for our party member to recieve his WATER. After asking FIVE people for water, a young teen was sent out with a pitcher of ICE and some water to refill our glasses. The only person who wanted water STILL did not recieve water at this point. After the lights brightend to an extent where they hurt our and and then suddenly dimmed to an extent where we could barely see if not for the two candles, we were starting to get irritated. We stopped another waiter to ask for water again and asked if they could turn the lights up so we wouldn’t have to strain our eyes. He said if we were not happen then we should LEAVE. The head of our party ASKED if they wanted us to LEAVE. The HOST said yes. We started to get up, and as we were getting up another member of our group let them know that they were being ingorant of the fact that we were leaving because of them and that they were the ones at fault for the poor service. At this point in time, the host called the woman who told him this a B**CH. No punches were thrown but when they “threatened” to call the police we said that we would GLADLY wait. We walked the two steps over to the “coat room” and waited 10 minutes to retrieve one coat and the only reason we got it that fast was because the owner of the coat went in and got it. I will never go back there again and I DO NOT RECCOMEND IT. If you feel like spending $100 on a meal and being treated like you must be grateful to eat it there be my guest. I feel like I was cheated out on a memorable New Years Eve, all because one restrauant could not turn up the lights and get ONE GLASS OF WATER.
ChefMatt
02/07/2008My name is Matt Fanella and I am the chef and owner of Tivoli. I was in the kitchen the entire night and knew nothing of this.
There are always 2 sides to a story, but I also believe that the customer is always right, most of the time. And I always believe in listening to critisiscm.
So I am sorry thisd happened to you, but:
Why did you keep asking employees? Why did you not ask for the owner if this problem kept being ignored?
And if your reservation was for 7 and you made it 8 then why would you even comment that we had to “THROW” another table together? This is a bit dramatic is it not, just to make it seem worse than it truly was. We accomadated YOUR change correct? Did we do what was necessary to make your party comfortable? With the full house we had on NYE if you said a table of 7, this is what you got. Another person would not have fit, so we made it right by fitting in your extra guest.
And $100 on a meal? Were you in my restaurant? The most expensive thing is $34.00 and it comes with salad and side .
And the lighting hurt your eyes? Come on, every bulb in my place is 20 watts, do you have cataracts or maybe pink eye?
So if you are going to give a review about a business, at least man up and make it an honest one. Exaggerated reviews are what most people do. At least be original. I will buy you dinner if you try me again and maybe you were determined to have a bad NYE and it was not as bad as you are making it out to be. I made 200 other people happy that night.