| rev:text
| - I have been to Tonic three times. Twice for just drinks, and today for lunch.
The first time for a beer to celebrate my new job downtown, which is located nearby on Smithfield Street. The second time with a coworker to rant and rave about work over a couple vodka sodas and sit outside on a summer day. Our male waiter was pleasant and attentive that day, and it was nice sitting outside downtown. We didn't need much from him, but I will say, we each ordered two drinks and it felt like we were just drinking water.
Now, today for lunch... I have gone here with coworkers before, hoping to get lunch, but it was so crowded we got turned away and/or turned off. I came in to work this morning and some girls said they wanted to go to Tonic for lunch and asked if I was interested in going. So for the sake of finally trying the food, and not wanting to turn down a fun lunch, I said "Count me in!"
We walked in and were suddenly shooed with a "Upstairs, upstairs!" by a women. We looked at the room downstairs and the floor was torn up/being fixed/chairs were everywhere/something was going on. No explanation, just a rude "Go upstairs." We went up and there is a large table with an older crowd, tables with four tops and other business people...a typical lunch crowd. The place was filled, but it didn't seem 'busy.' Voices echoed, and we couldn't hear each other at times...
But as I looked around, I noticed no one had any food on their table. And they looked impatient. This was not a good sign. We got our teas and waters, and it seemed our waitress was overwhelmed.
Everyone at the table but me ordered a salad. I ordered the squash flatbread (in part because reading other reviews, people said the appetizers were better than other things on the menu). Now, how long should a couple salads and a flatbread take to assemble? Over 40 minutes? Because that is how long it took.
Never once did our waitress come over to let us know our food was coming, or that they were struggling today due to the work being done downstairs, or even apologize for the wait. Luckily, we had plenty to talk about and enjoy each other's company, but we only had an hour for lunch. We had to call our office and let them know what was going on, that we would instead be out for an hour and a half lunch.
Never saw a manager or person in charge "touch tables." I would think this is the type of crowd you'd want to keep coming back for lunch. Once the large table got their food, and the ladies next to us got theirs, we thought surely ours would be arriving shortly. Again, we just ordered salads and a flatbread... Still took about 15 minutes or more from that moment.
Then, finally, it was plopped down in front of us by a different waiter. My friend got the steak salad that also came with fries on top. Her steak and fries were cold. To the touch, my flatbread was slightly warm, but the ratio of squash to cheese was ridiculous - so much goat cheese, it was the only thing you could taste. Another friend got the buffalo chicken salad, she didn't complain, I think due to the fact we were all so hungry, but it was nothing to rave about. A friend also got the French onion soup and a side salad, but said the soup was very bland.
The food was not worth the wait. We never got an apology, an explanation, or offered a discount for our obscene wait for our food during lunch hour (12-1pm). This is a downtown location, who obviously has a constant business lunch demand, but they don't do a good job with that crowd. The waitresses would disappear from the room entirely, and it was cold because they left the door downstairs open and it was coming up the stairs. And once it was time to pay, it was sort of chaos because of course, everyone is paying separate checks and they were just throwing out receipts - and then we all had sticker shock at how expensive it was.
I don't mean to complain so much, but we didn't see a manager to speak with, nor were we ever given the opportunity to voice our concerns or felt like our business mattered. My only hope is that they step up their kitchen/wait staff during lunch because this location is not to be taken advantage of. Maybe if we ordered booze we would've been treated differently...
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)