Rebecca (theniwokesoftly) wrote in bad_service,
Rebecca
theniwokesoftly
bad_service
On Wednesday, two friends and I went to see Peter Cincotti at the Highline Ballroom in New York. They have per-person minimum, so we didn't eat before going- we just planned to have dinner there. We were seated a bit before 7 and ordered a but after 7- enough time to receive our food and settle our bill before the show started at 8. Plus, my friends wanted dessert. Around 8, we got a little nervous that our food hadn't yet arrived. To this point, our waitress had walked by many times but only checked in once, saying the kitchen was kind of slow tonight, but this was excessive and she'd go check, but the people around us had all gotten their food even though they'd been seated later. We'd all gotten water, which is served in small glasses, and I'd asked for more water twice and my friend had asked twice, but we hadn't gotten any refills. Now, I feel stupid, I should have just taken my glass up to the bar and asked for water, but the mezzanine at Highline is kind of crowded and the people behind us made it hard to get out from our table.

At 8:15, I grabbed the waitress, who said "They still haven't brought your food? I'm going to kill them", which, what? Anyway, our food finally arrived at 8:35. The show ended at 9:10, by the way. My friends' food was fine, but my sandwich was barely lukewarm and my fries were cold. Then she asked for a credit card- we were all paying cash, so she brought the bill and waited for us. We asked for a minute, and she came back twice to bother us. We ordered in plenty of time to pay before the show started, so we didn't really appreciate missing some of the show to be harassed about payment. Anyway, she left and we figured out our payment- Highline adds an automatic 15% gratuity, so we left about $54 on a $52 bill because we thought 15% was pretty generous after all that. Then she waited to come get the bill until the show was over, whereupon she grabbed it off the table in a put-upon manner and ran out into the stairwell, where she counted it out with the audience (including us) passing her. Any guilt I might have felt about not leaving extra money vanished at that point. I'm still surprised by all this, because she started out really well. And we did get more water, but only one glass each. At least Peter was fantastic (not that he's ever not).
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