As a member of the restaurant industry, I'm always...

As a member of the restaurant industry, I'm always careful about my reviews because I know how impactful they are. But I can't sugar coat this experience even if I wanted to. We made reservations on OpenTable & drove over from Jersey for our anniversary dinner. 5-10 minutes to be acknowledged, plus an additional 5-10 minutes before we could order; but the server had plenty of time to hang out with some friends & do a couple shots. My boyfriend ordered a four spice burger, medium.....no avocado. The server repeated the order back - avocado, ketchup, onions & a bunch of other stuff that isn't stated on the menu. I understand that in this "new normal" some things are different (not having condiments on the table to reduce the amount of things people touch & need to be cleaned) but explain that to people so they can say "no thanks". The calamari was nothing special, and my shrimp tacos were equally blah. We didn't say anything about the burger only because we didn't see our server again until I was almost finished with my meal. The only time my boyfriend touched the burger was when he tried to scrape off the avocado then noticed everything else on the burger. When the server finally did come to check on us, he didn't even notice the untouched plate & went back to the friends at the bar asking for shots.

Yes, we could have brought it up to the manager (or man in the button down shirt who was counting the bar drawer) except he was too busy checking out girls & dancing with the bartenders & pouring shots for the friends at the end of the bar. 5-10 minutes after our plates were cleared for a dessert order to be taken, and then 20 minutes for it to actually arrive (cookie skillets don't usually take that long unless you forget them somehow, but, it was the best part of the meal so I'll let it slide.)

We paid for everything, including the burger that was never touched. We left roughly 20% even though a vast majority of our experience was in fact due to our server just not caring about anything other than his friends. Honestly, tonight was like every single negative Yelp review my restaurant ever received being acted out in front of my face. As a manager, a server, and a bartender - it appears they are taking advantage of this "new normal" & also being one of only a handful of restaurants open right now - so most people don't have a choice. Eventually they will though, so it might be a good idea to step up their game now before that happens.

PS another thing not mentioned anywhere on the menu or in the building - 3% service charge for extra cleaning measures due to the pandemic. I understand the point behind this....but cleaning should have ALWAYS been a priority. Maybe CT health code is different but I'm pretty sure wet towels strewn around the outside bar, no where near any cleaning liquids of any kind, is not quite worth a 3% additional charge.