Sorry about the rant but the only way to justify the 1 star is for you to know the whole story. I'll start from the beginning. Friends and I from out of town came here before the Cavs game based on Yelp reviews. We were excited when we got there because it looked like an upscale bar with good comfort food. The place was half empty and we told the hostess we would like a table for four.
Hostess (indignantly): You don't have a reservation?
Us: Nope.
Hostess: Well, I can find a spot for you but you have to be out of here by 7:45.
(that was over two hours for us to eat what is self described as comfort food)
Us: Perfect, we are trying to get to the Cavs game by 7:30 anyways.
After dismissing the rude hostess, we sat down. Setting was nice, very clean, nice decor. Menu looked nice. But then no one came to help us. After a short while we waved someone down. "Has anyone come by to help you yet?" Nope. Do they not have a system? Is it just a free-for-all for the servers?
The man was friendly enough. We put in our order. We put our appetizers and entrees with our drinks, thinking we were being helpful, since a. we wanted to keep dinner under an 1 hour 45 and b. they demanded we keep it under 2 hours. Twenty minutes later only half of our drinks had arrived though this was quickly remedied when we reminded them.
While we waited the table to our right was receiving entrees without sides. "Sorry but we are making the 'tots' now." Seemed weird to bring out an entree without the side. Seemed weird that they didn't have tots when they are involved in a lot of menu items. Seemed weird that they didn't have tots when it takes all of 5 minutes to fry a ton of them.
Meanwhile, we notice our food hasn't come yet. At 45 minutes our crab hushpuppies came. They were good. Points for that. The server placed them in front of one of our group without asking. Theres a wooden thing in the middle to place shareable foods that he could have put it on but our menus were there (we put them there because no one took our menus). However, our waiter came shortly and took the menus and put the food where it belongs.
We asked when the entrees were coming. "Shortly." Next they brought out skillet cornbread for free. It was great.
A short while later, our other dining neighbors asked us if we had gotten our food yet and what we order. They were much more upset than we were (we are pretty chill group). The first table decided to just pay and leave, even though they never got their tots! :(
We asked our waiter again. "Oh you are up next." He only checked in on us when we waived him down... Then a few minutes later the manager (possibly?) came out an apologized for our wait. "I'm sorry but everyone showed up at once so we are backed up." Yes... everyone came at once... at 5:45 on a Saturday night before a basketball game. Thats what people do here... The restaurant isn't that big and the food isn't that complex (we ordered 2 burgers, mac and cheese, and a fried pork cutlet)...
I think the biggest problem though, worse than the wait, is that we were treated rudely and told we could only have a space (again at a half empty restaurant) if we were out in 2 hours. Then our entrees came an HOUR AND HALF later. What did they want us to do? Power down our food? No time for desert?!? The apology was there but trying to justify the service. And it would have been nice to have something removed from the bill? Offered a free something (though we had no time to wait)? Or anything... oh well.
The sad thing is the food was actually really good. But the service was HORRIBLE. Sucky service ruins everything. Maybe it was a one time thing but at least three tables were not happy... Sorry about the rant again.