Can awful service ruin a restaurant? Yes, and this is a prime example. The location is right, the food is good, there are mouth watering desserts on display but the execution of the service there is a complete failure.
I have been to Pickel Barrel twice since they've renovated it. There were a few hostesses but it looked like they were getting off duty and the manager was asking them to stay and they had a little dispute about whether the hostess should have stayed. Both the manager, off-duty hostess and the on-duty hostess did not give a rats arse about my friend and I who was just standing there. We just left and went somewhere else.
The second time, we made it into a seat. My boyfriend ordered the king crab and steak combo and I ordered a salad. The waitress said that they were discontinuing the king crab and would go check with the cooks. She came back and told us that there was king crab, so he ordered the king crab with steak combo.
It was not until I got my salad entree that she came and told him that there was actually no king crab! My friend said fine, I'll just order something else. He decided to ordered a larger cut of steak, but the server said that he MUST take the steak that was supposed to come with the crab because it was already cooked. So the waitress forced him to take the steak that was already made and substitute something else for the king crab.
And... his entree did not come out until I finished mine. When his entree came out, they also served his starters (salad and something else) at the same time. Did I mention that the steak was cold at this point? So half the time we were just watching each other eat. Terrible experience.