| rev:text
| - I rarely ever post reviews, but I feel strongly this one is necessary. I waited tables for many years and understand that every experience isn't perfect, things get busy/stressful and that it's hard work. With that being said, I know bad service, training and poor overall organization of an establishment when I see it.
My family and I dined at Essex last night for dinner (table of 8). I've eaten at Essex 3 different times and sat at the bar w/one person during 'off hours'. My experiences all three times were good, hence the family dinner reservation. Last night's dining experience was sub-par at best. After being sat, we waited ~ 20 minutes before anyone took our drink orders or even came to the table. The waitress didn't address the whole table once...hi, I'm your server, has anyone been here before, here are recommendations, etc. It took another 20 minutes to receive our drinks or have anyone come back to the table. The waitress then brought a wrong drink order after I watched it being said correctly to her. Two more were made/entered incorrectly.
Because of how long we'd already been sat and the long amount of time it took to just receive our drinks, we decided to order everything at the same time. We specified 3 appetizer orders to be placed first (this should be obvious when you state, 'We'd like to start with these 3 appetizer orders before our dinner.'). We followed with our dinner orders. I would expect the waitstaff to mention here if the system for delivering food is different than that.
This is where lack of organization and poorly run 'system' became horribly apparent. The food started coming out in terrible sequence. Two people got their dinners first after people/runners shouted out what the meal was to the table. Then a long lag time...no other plates delivered for ~10-15 min. This continued in 3-4 more phases with 1-2 people getting their meal followed by a longer than acceptable wait time between each. The appetizers were delivered dispersed throughout the dinner orders arriving to the table...one coming next to last. My dad's dinner was finally delivered at the very, very end after the whole table had their food for some time. After all this, the waitress never came back to check in, see how the meals were, if we needed anything else. This is basic etiquette no matter where you are waiting.
We had to waive her down to place additional drink orders. Then, she only checked with half the table. I had to stop her as she walked away & before she disappeared for another 20 min to ask that she take orders from the other half of the table! We originally planned to get desserts & after-dinner drinks. After this ridiculously disappointing experience, we got the check and moved to a different restaurant instead hoping to have a more positive experience to end the night.
I will also note that it's 'restaurant week' and dining out during this week is busy. I am still unaware, however, if Essex even participates in this week?? If so, we certainly weren't told that at the beginning of our night at Essex. If so, we also never saw a 'restaurant week' menu or were informed of the menu/deals specific to that.
Very, very disappointing experience for an anticipated fun, relaxing and rare night out for the whole family.
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Ashley, in response to your comment below...we dined at Essex on Saturday, Jan. 21st. Our reservations were for 8 people at 8pm.
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