We've been twice. The first time the food was poo...

We've been twice. The first time the food was poor, the second time was a customer service experience so poor we left before eating. I'm sorry we wasted our time with this place.

On the first visit we went in with high hopes based on recommendations. There wasn't anything vegetarian on the menu, but they assured us (when we made the reservation) that they would have no problem whipping something up. What we got was simple penne with tomato sauce - which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but at $100 per person, if you are going to serve something that simple, it has to be perfect. It wasn't - the pasta was slightly overdone and the tomato sauce a bit bland. Basically, something that would have been thoroughly mediocre at a quarter the price, followed by an uninteresting desert.

We went back a few years later after being assured by many people that that was a fluke, and that Frasca was wonderful. Well, sometimes restaurants, even good ones, do have off nights, so we finally decided to go back as a birthday celebration.

45 minutes after our reservation, we gave up and left. During this time we had been told nothing more than 'your table should be ready any minute', had been given nothing but a small bowl of nuts that were too salty to eat, and there turned out to be people who had been there even longer and were receiving similar treatment.

Again, this could just be bad luck, things happen to schedules, but the lack of any estimates as to when we might get in and general poor communications would be unacceptable in a chain restaurant.

As we left they apologized, and when we further expressed our displeasure at multiple bad experiences that point they finally offered to comp us a meal if we came back, which I suppose, if you are feeling generous, you could count to their credit, but giving them a third chance to disappoint us seems like asking a bit much.

Follow up: we received a nice handwritten letter of apology from Frasca. The service while we were there was appalling, and I still have no intention of ever going back, but I have to confess their follow-up has been quite good.