Over the past 10-15 years, we have dined at Bistro Provence approximately twice a year. We enjoyed it for the excellent food, ambiance, service, and prices. It has been our ‘go to’ restaurant when friends are in from out of town. Unfortunately, we will be...looking elsewhere.
Last Saturday night, a group of six of us arrived by 6:10 for a 6PM reservation. We were seated and before we could even say hello to each other, we were informed that we had to order dinner as quickly as possible as a group of forty was due in at 6:30. About five minutes later, as he took our drink order, the waiter reminded us that we had to order because once the big party came in, the chef would be totally focused on them for at least an hour. Five minutes later, we were told that this was out last chance to order! So we skipped a first course since, God forbid, we didn’t want to inconvenience the big party or the chef. By the way, when the restaurant had called at noon to confirm our reservation, they made no mention of a large party following us in. They obviously didn’t want us to go somewhere else – just hurry up once there.
When our dinners arrived, five were served together, and after a few minutes wait, I signaled the waiter to find out what had happened to the sixth dinner. We were told it would be up ‘soon.’ We should have never had to ask! And we should have been served together.
Now people at some of the other tables were starting to leave. The most horrible loud screeches came from the seats being moved. Literally, conversations had to stop. A simple foam pad, available at any office supply store, would solve the problem. With the increase in the dinner prices and a mandatory 20% tip for a party of five or more – no wonder they didn’t care about attitude or service - one would expect that they could solve this problem easily.
An apology and perhaps free dessert for the inconveniences would have gone a long way to mollifying us. But at $14 a pop, plus 20%, that extra $100 must have been very important. I apologized to the group for the unfortunate hot mess. Fortunately, four of the party had eaten there before – one of the main reasons that we were back – so we chalked it up to another experience and went our merry ways.More