We used to love Marin Joe's restaurant, but after tonight we will never return or recommend it to anyone.
Tonight we called ahead to make dinner reservations for 6. We were told that they only take reservations for parties of seven or more. We decided to go anyway, arrived at 7pm and were told there would be an hour wait for a table. Even though it was a long wait, we decided to go into the bar and wait over drinks.
The bar was crowded there was no place to sit, so we waited until a table there opened up. We were not allowed to sit and any of the 4 open tables, as we were told those were "dining tables". When one finally did open up we discovered there were not enough chairs. Half of our party was left standing for another ten to fifteen minutes, with none of the staff even noticing. When we asked for chairs we got no response, and so finally took chairs from the next table that opened up. A waitress came and took two of our chairs from us saying that they needed them for a "dinner table". She did not offer us other chairs, even though there was a stack of them around the corner. We waited another 45 minutes before the stressed out curt cocktail waitress got to our table. After waiting for over an hour and a half, watching many other parties who arrived after us and were somehow seated in the dining room before us, we were finally offered a bar table right next to the bar table we had been sitting/standing at for 1 1/2 hours, instead of a dining room table. When we refused the table, the manager/owner acted offended, and in a surprisingly demeaning tone asked why we didn't want the table. At that point, hungry and fed up, we just left.
Our party was expecting a wait, but we never expected that level of indifference to our needs nor the demeaning and offhanded manner in which the hostess and manager dealt with our party. Our experience was insulting and embarrassing, especially since we had recommended the establishment so highly to our out of town visitors.
Pros: menu
Cons: consistently poor service, bad management /owner attitude, "in club" seating and preferential treatment
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