Last night I had planned to enjoy a quiet dinner at the Park on 10th Avenue with a few friends to celebrate my steady crawl towards 40 (still a few years to go). Instead of a pleasant dining experience we suffered the most unimaginably poor service I have ever been inflicted with in my 36 years.
Planning for this was an event unto itself and after confirming who would be attending we made a reservation for 10 people for Sunday night.
We arrived and, at first, all seemed well. We were seated promptly. Our waitress was quick to take our drink orders. She even cautioned us against ordering certain appetizers labeled “for two”, claiming that they were actually not large enough for two. At least she was honest that there was some false advertising going on.
Once our full party arrived we proceeded to order. Most of us asked for one of three burgers from the menu. Others requested salads or pizzas. Two people requested special orders of items on the menu for dietary concerns. “No problem,” said our waitress and she hurried off to put the order in.
It was another 25 or 30 minutes before we heard any word on our orders. Three times our previously attentive waitress hurried by to bus a now empty table, ignoring us in the process even though many of us had finished our drinks and were desperate for refills. (It was particularly warm out and we were seating near the large doors to the atrium… essentially outdoors… so we were parched by this point.)
When she finally came back to us I indicated that I needed a refill on my tea and others requested their own refill choices. She wandered away and after almost 15 minutes came back to us with refills for others and food for a few people at the table. Still I had no tea. When I asked about my refill she said, “Oh, they’re brewing tea now. It will be a little while.” And then she left. No offer of a substitute drink or even water!
A second round of food began to arrive, for a few more members of the party. Still, one-third of our group was without food, including me. Our waitress was nowhere so we asked the runner to please check on our other orders. I only ordered a regular Chef’s Cheeseburger… nothing fancy and other cheeseburgers had already been delivered.
After a few more minutes the manager came out to apologize to one member of our party because the chef didn’t understand her special requests and this caused a major delay in her order. A nice gesture but still no apology to me or the others who still had no food.
After another ten minutes passed one member of our party went to the bar to find the manager and formally complain. He returned saying that our other food should be out momentarily. Still I had no tea.
Finally, the rest of the food, minus the “confusing” special order arrived followed sometime thereafter by my tea.
We had to complain again that the waitress had vanished multiple times and had not checked on us. Where was she? Busing tables while the busboy was running food.
The special order finally arrived, now a good hour after we’d ordered and the manager sent our waitress over with complimentary champagne to pacify our frustrations. Again, this was a nice gesture but we should never have been subjected to rotten service in the first place. The manager than told us that the special order and her accompanying drink would be comped as well as a veggie burger for another guest at our table (who had actually received her meal first).
Sorry Park, but this was all too little too late. You made, what should have been an enjoyable birthday dinner out with friends into a miserable experience leaving all ten of us incredibly dissatisfied and angry. You may have some wonderful ambiance but when your customers leave angry what’s the point?
Zero stars. Check out other negative reviews (with similar problems) on Yelp.com.
Tommy Karr 