I have never in all my life...
I went there with a group of about 12 people after the South End Gallery Crawl on Friday night. We walked inside first so we saw that it wasn't very crowded. We could also see that there was no great influx of people because we sat outside near the front door and next to a window.
I did not expect the fastest service at 8:00 on a Friday night with a group of 12. I was having fun so that was OK. I was also not expecting such a completely terrible fiasco of an evening.
We waited over an hour for our food (very simple appetizers with one or two sandwiches), but not because they were busy, it was because the waitress waited forever to enter the order. When a few people spoke up about the wait, the waitress ARGUED with us and said that the order was just entered and that's what took so long. Really? I still do not understand why that was her defense. She waited 45 minutes to enter our order and that was supposed to be OK??
After a little more lip from the waitress a few people asked for the manager. He didn't come out right away so the leader of the group went in to talk to him. He told her that we weren't upset, she was just drunk. She actually came back to the table crying! What on earth made him think this was OK to say???
Someone else went in to talk to him but it turns out out that he was busy because he was watching the surveillance video to see what happened. Are you serious? I have worked in restaurants before and have NEVER had one of my bosses do that. It actually bothered me the way that they just gave into anything from a whimper to a tirade. I know that's the way it's supposed to be done though, not "Tell them I'll be out in a minute. I need to watch the video first".
Anyway, when the manager finally came out, he argued with us, too! After a few minutes of telling us we were wrong he finally asked if he wanted us to comp the meals. We said "no" because that would imply that we were satisfied and would be coming back. It's not that we minded paying, we just didn't want to be treated like street trash.
He just had a very bad attitude and was completely unprofessional. I will never, ever go back there again. It was a terrible experience.
And the food wasn't that good either. :(
(I was tired and wrote "professional" instead of "unprofessional" the first time).