People have told me to give this place another chance. Maybe I was just imagining the stank face from the previous visit, and I was really just seeing the glassy harried face of waitresses that were overwhelmed due to a packed bar.
So, this was the place I recommended when a friend from out of town was visiting and we needed somewhere that would accomodate the omnivores, the herbivore and the intolerantivores.
I arrived for the second half of a reunion, and caught the tail-end of an awesome waitress. My friends remarked on how friendly and fast she was. When she left, we were stuck with a waitress, whom, while later proved to be knowledgable about the menu items; never bothered to give me a menu. When I asked for one, the lady next to me offered me hers as she had finished looking at it, and the waitress took that as a sign to not bother.
The wine spritzer on the drink menu is actually Catalina canned wine (hey, baby. Let's you and me take this six-pack of wine to the beach), but if you want a white wine spritzer in a glass, they can make you one for an extra $3. I'm not so uppity that I'll turn down canned wine, and it actually isn't bad. I was never offered another one, though, and neither was anyone else. Not a glass of water, nothing. Restaurants, this is your moment to shine. While sensible me will try to be content with one drink, if you offer, I will gladly agree to another. And another. You can make fat bank on me with just drinks alone, if only you ask!
Our table had a steak and two burgers: one beef, one vegan burger. If you have a gluten sensitivity, the vegan burger is bound together with breadcrumbs. I opted for their side quinoa salad and french fries. The quinoa salad and french fries portion were fairly generous, so I wasn't that upset that I couldn't have the vegan burger. The lady that did order it remarked that it was delicious. The quinoa salad and fries were okay, a little oily, but if I was rating just the food, they would've been a solid 3.
The food took quite a while to come out, but I would have minded more if I wasn't busy catching up with an old friend that I haven't seen in ages. Service was incredibly slow, we were never checked on, and someone at our table pointed out that our waitress was watching the game when some of us were waiting for our bill.
The bathroom is fairly clean. I appreciate the night stand/corner table placed in front of the toilet. It's the perfect height for slumping over if you're relieving yourself and you're too drunk to function. As well, I like that there's a garbage can just outside of the door, so you can use a paper towel to turn the door handle.
When I came out of the bathroom, I noticed our waitress talking to a group of guys that had decided to sit down at our table, and taking their drink orders. Um, hello... whodafuckareyou. While yes, my friend and I were leaving, giving us the courtesy to actually vacate first would've been good form, dudes.
Even better form would have been the waitress telling them so, rather than slapping a bill in front of me without making eye contact and saying, "oh, you're leaving, right?" I felt like I was being shoved out the door. Maybe my bill wasn't that high, but again, there was zero effort made to sell me on anything other than what I had ordered. On patron husbandry, she gets a C.
So, yeah. I want to like Oak Tree, but based on Friday's experience; I feel like I should have just trusted my initial instinct. I'll go if I'm invited, but it's not going to be a place I'll seek out on my own.