We went to the Artisan on a Friday night at 8:30 pm. They were busy so we waited a short time for a table to be set. We talked to Ron (seemed to be the host) and he was pleasant. We told him we were locals and had been going there for 5 years. We ordered our appetizers within 5 minutes of seating and our main courses about 5 minutes later.
Our appetizer came about 3/4 of an hour later (a Mediterranean dish with hummus, olives, eggplant). We waited another hour or so and our mains had still not come. The people seated beside us just had theirs not long before us and they had been in since 7:30pm. We told the waiter to cancel our orders as it was ridiculous to wait that long with no notice from the staff.
The table next to us said this was a good idea as the food was all bad. The steak was ordered rare and was sent back once already and the one it was replaced with was a least served to medium. The short ribs were not good and all meat (there were 6 entrees ordered at that table)was overcooked.
Ron came to us to say the waiter had not noticed our dishes were ready (lamb rack and steak) and he put new lamb and steak on the grill for us. I did not believe that at all - they are not going to throw away perfectly good meat and make us new ones because ours had been sitting on the warmer. We said we would pay for what we had eaten and wanted to leave. Ron came back 5 minutes later and said our food would be ready in 3 minutes. We said no, we are leaving. There was no apology, nothing. We paid our tab and he still never said anything. The people next to us were charged for a shrimp scampi meal they never had because there was no shrimp at the restaurant that night. They had told the waiter that the food was terrible and the service was terrible and got no response either.
Our appetizer plates and cutlery never were removed from the table even though it had been at least an hour since we had finished with them. In addition, someone on the other side of us had ordered some seafood (not sure what) and the smell was so overwhelming I was almost sick. I was thinking it was lucky I didn't order seafood. We had eaten here many times before but not in the last 5 or so months. We will not be back again. To treat locals the way we were treated is not the way to stay in business.