Recently I was on vacation in Miami. I visited the restaurant at the Coconut Grove location. Upon arrival I was quoted a 20 minute wait by the hostess. 1 hour went by and we were still not seated. I had a party of 5 adults and 1 toddler. I was observing there were a few empty booths that would accommodate all of us. The restaurant did not look too busy as we arrived around 8:30pm on a wednesday night. I asked to speak to a general manager to ask why we could not have been seated in those booths. The manager told me we had been waiting because the staff was overloaded and the waiters needed to catch up.
Having worked in the service industry, I told him his hostess should have quoted a longer waiting time. Communication between staff members is crucial for a business to run smoothly.
As we continued to wait, I observed the hostess seated a party of four that had got in the restaurant 45 minutes after us. I was very hungry and angry at that point. I asked for the manager again and asked him how it was possible they could easily accommodate a party of four, but not a party of six in an empty booth. He proceeded to tell me he could not make his staff serve in a different location of the restaurant !! In other words, was he telling me his staff comfort was more important than me - his customer ?
I was dumbfounded by the lack of management skills of this fellow. He was not courteous at any point of our conversation and did not seem to care if he lost sales to our party of 6 people. It is safe to say this employee was overwhelmed with the issues he had to handle, and he did not seem to care to make a good impression of the restaurant.
This was a big disappointment given we were in one of your prime locations in Florida.
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