Jessica M

Review of Maumee Bay Resort and Conferen...

This review is related to the Water s Edge restaur...

This review is related to the Water s Edge restaurant at the lodge. We went to the restaurant during breakfast hours. We stopped at the hostess s desk to request seating. The hostess leads us to our table, provided us with waters and menus, and we waited for a waitress to take our drink and food orders. We waited and waited and waited. Meanwhile, the waitress working our area was attending to all of the tables around us. She even attended to a party who was in the restaurant just to sit, they were not even eating. We continued to wait, while watching her continue to service everyone around us, completely ignoring us. We were seated near the entrance to the kitchen, so just about all of the waitresses working there had to pass by our table multiple times. No one stopped by our table, no one acknowledged us, and no one asked if we had been waited on.

Finally, a waitress who was working on the other side of the restaurant, shouted out does anyone have table 35? Or something to that extent. No one responded to her. We knew she was referring to our table. Finally, she came over to us and asked if we had been serviced. We responded no . She told us that there was a mix up and no one knew who had our table. We knew that wasn t the truth. Before we were seated, I noticed that the hostess had a map of the restaurant in front of her. The names of the waitress were listed on the map, and you could see which waitress was responsible for which tables. There was a waitress assigned to our table. She, however, chose not to acknowledge us or service us. All of the waitresses passing by ours ignored us as well. They all saw that we had not been serviced, so that wasn t a legitimate excuse.

I wasn t quick to assume this, but I began to feel as if we were being discriminated against. We were the only African-American party in that area, and only 1 of 2 African-American parties in the restaurant. My feelings were confirmed by what we experienced next when a Caucasian party entered the restaurant. I can tell that they did not stop at the hostess s desk because they picked their own table, and they did not have drinks nor menus, which was usually provided by the hostess after seating. They hadn t sat for 5 minutes, before the waitress working our area greeted them, asked if they were eating, took their drink orders, and yelled out let s get these folks some menus! . Wow! We went through the proper protocol of stopping at the hostess desk and we could not get service. Meanwhile, a Caucasian party did NOT follow proper protocol, went straight into the restaurant, picked out their own table, and they were serviced within minutes of sitting.

Needless to say, we will NEVER return to this resort, we will be reporting our experience, and we will be sharing the discrimination that we experienced with others. I know this isn t a 5 star restaurant, but whether or not someone receives basic service shouldn t be determined by the color of their skin. Period.