Amanda Russell

Review of The Berkeley Hotel

I've never experienced anything like the last hour...

I've never experienced anything like the last hour and a half. Ho-ly crap. Since I wasted all that time at "lunch" I really can't afford to spend even more time writing this potentially lengthy review. I will do my best to make this quick.

Around 1pm we showed up with a party of four. We just needed a quick lunch. We waited in the dining room for about 10 minutes for our waitress to approach. She seemed stressed and without really welcoming us to the Berkeley, she started telling us that they've had a rough day and we should expect a 20-25 minute wait on our burgers. Huh?! No one even mentioned we were getting burgers. What was she talking about. She then explained they were promoting a new burger that was holding up the kitchen. Ok, no big deal. We've all been waiters before, we can relax and wait the 25 mins.

We started noticing EVERYONE in the dining room was looking around, waiting for service, even chatting with other tables to show their dismay. No one was happy. We ended up getting our food about 15 mins after everyone had cleared out. We estimated it was around 45 minutes after we arrived. When the food got there, it was wrong. All wrong. The $14 veggie pasta was supposed to have seasonal vegetables with mushrooms, etc. It was literally noodles, with 4 pieces of yellow squash. That's it. My friend ordered the Oyster Po Boy. Simple enough, right? When it arrived, it was a bunch of fried oysters on a salad. When she complained about it, the waitress snapped at her and said, "that IS the po boy".... um no. We asked to see a menu. ACTUALLY, they did have a po boy salad, but it was called something else. It was under the salad section. And you had to ask especially to get the oysters added on. Clearly, there on the menu under sandwiches was "Northern Neck Po Boy" which was a sandwich with..... oysters. Anyway, the waitress argued with my friend (who is VERY sweet and didn't even want to complain) and told her she would bring her some bread out so she could put the oysters on the bread herself. Wow.... It actually gets worse...

My chicken sandwich was overcooked. I couldn't eat it. We had had enough and decided none of us could eat this food for the pricey penny they were asking. I had to ask for a manager. Ten minutes later he waltzes out, and waited for us to speak. After we politely went through everything, he just stood there. He slowly said, "I can offer you 15% off your meal." ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Am I taking crazy pills or did this guy just offer me 15% for an entire meal that we didn't eat and took an hour to arrive. We got a bit louder, and admittedly, more irritated and basically told him that wasn't good enough. The waitress came back and said we were free to go. THEN, she mentions that we didn't actually wait an hour, because she checked the ticket and she put our food order in at 1:20, which means we were only there for 45 mins waiting. She literally argued with my very polite friend about how long we had been there. We did wait for her to come to our table for 10 minutes, plus I know she waited to put the order in. So she doesn't even know what she's talking about. She then claimed that the Berkeley is considered fine dining and that it usually takes about an hour. Well then, if you originally apologized to our table for the 20-25 minute wait we should expect, then say that it usually takes about an hour to get your food, something doesn't add up. Not to mention we've been there plenty of times and it has never taken that long. And if you can't handle a lunch rush in the middle of downtown Richmond, maybe you shouldn't be in business.

All in all, a terrible experience that will go down in history as worst food, service, and experience of any restaurant. I sincerely hope Chef Ramsay finds his way to this slop show and shuts them down.