Well we had heard great things about this restaurant and it looked really appetizing on it's website. However, when we got there, the restaurant was half empty, but most of the tables in complete disarray and had dirty dishes stacked on them, the floor covered in filth, nothing like the picture on the website, it looked like a dump with multiple health code violations. I must say it smelled good though. \r
After standing at the hostess table for over 10 minutes without a single person acknowledging our presence (even so there were waitresses busy with the 6 tables that were occupied) a manger finally came to the hostess stand. He looked at a spiral notebook that listed 2 names on it, looked around us (we were the only 2 folks standing there) and then told us he would have to check with the hostess. After what seemed another eternity, the hostess finally showed up. She asked us how she could help us as if that wasn't obvious by now. I told her we would like to be seated and eat. So she tells us, wweeeeelllllll... long pause while she turns around looks at the resaturant with all those empty tables, then she studies the list of 2 names, inspects the dining area again, studies the 2 names a little longer, asks if we have a reservation (which we did not), ponders the answer for a while, looks at the list of 2 names again, turns to look at the dining room again and one more time back to the list and finally tells us that it would be about 40 minutes for us to be seated. I checked my watch and by now I have wasted approximately 25 to 30 minutes already and I am no longer in the mood to mess with this, because it is getting to be borderline ridiculous. \r
Mind you in all this time not one of the dirty tables was cleared or any cleaning done in the dining room. \r
Since we had a groupon, which for those that are unfamiliar with groupons, it's like a discounted giftcard. You pay up front and use it later. So I asked the hostess, who was very pretty but obviously not a Mensa candidate for my money back because I was sure I would never set foot into this place again and I was met with a blank stare. Now we know that several hundreds of these groupons were sold for this particular restaurant, so one would think she'd heard of it. I explained the concept, told her I would like my money back. A few more minutes of the blank stare... then she goes: ""but why?"" I told her since I can not get seated for some reason even so the place is empty and we are the only 2 people in line and I live quite a ways away and just happen to be in the area, I have no intensions to go out of my way to stand around in a half empty restaurant, so I need a refund please. Apparently that request far surpassed her mental capabilities. So then she finally got the manager and I asked him for a refund, which was no problem, other than the fact that I had to wait again. As I had finally held my refund in my hand and turned around to leave, 2 people walked in. The manager grabbed 2 menues and proceeded to seat them at one of the few clean tables in the place. Wow... I wasted almost an hour in that place, no other customers came in, no tables were cleaned, I did see 2 or 3 tables receiving food, but that was it. The mystery remains how those 2 people got to be seated, maybe they had a reservation, but nobody asked them for it, or maybe they were on the 2 party waiting list, but they did not give their name either, maybe they have a dress code there, but this couple was not dressed any better than we were, maybe they were regulars? I have no clue what made them different from us. Let's hope it wasn't that they were snow white, while I was trying to infiltrate the restaurant with my bi-racial teen daughter.
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