I'd like to relate an experience I had today.
I went to Café Santropol, today.
I've never had such a lousy experience anywhere.
The waiter interrupted us while Liz was ordering, so she only got so far as "I'd like the fruit cup" before he told us there was no fruit cup. So she ordered just the yoghurt with a bit of honey.
Then, about ten minutes later, he brings in yoghurt and fruit cup mixed together with the honey. It's the way they serve it and it's not the way she likes it, but since he didn't let her finish, the information wasn't communicated.
So technically, he probably thought he was doing a nice thing, because he thought there was no fruit (we were told they don't stock any fruit salad in the winter). We explained to him that we didn't get the chance to explain why we didn't want the fruit cup that way and we didn't want it.
So he gave us a sour look, told us it was too late and it was already paid for and that we would be charged for it anyway. We asked him to give it to someone else rather than waste it.
Ok, not a deal-breaker, but our good mood was certainly soured.
Then he brought us her cutlery minus the knives, explaining that there weren't any knives available. This was a bit of a sore point because Liz had ordered the basket of breads and spreads, which is a bit reliant on having something with which to spread the, um, spreads.
So we used the backs of her spoon and fork in the meantime. We're nothing if not adaptable.
Still, there was no butter for the breads, nor glasses of water. I looked around and every last one of the other tables in our area had pitchers of ice water and glasses for each guest.
None were offered in our case and we weren't asked if we wanted to drink anything with our meals.
The tomato and barley soup turned out to have no tomatoes in it.
All of these being relatively minor items, the list of collateral damage was definitely in a growth phase.
Forty minutes in, I still had not received my vegetarian chili with cheese.
I think this is what ruined the meal for me, because that's what I'd ordered. Everything else we ordered, mistakes and all, had been delivered.
But not the chili.
And the waiter just wasn't coming back to our table, not to ask if we needed anything or whether the meal was basically to our satisfaction or whatnot.
Just to reassure you all, we had been nice and polite throughout the entire experience, because we have plenty of friends who are in the service industry and we know that bad days happen.
But chili? C'mon. It's the single most elementary simple thing to serve up in a restaurant. There's a big cauldron of it out back somewhere, you get a ladle, pour some in a bowl, pull some grated cheese out of a bag and throw some nachos chips along the side.
30 seconds and you're done. It's the no-brainer of foods to serve: easy money.
So yes, 40 minutes in and I finally get his attention and we ask if it's possible that the chili might be coming soon. He gives us a semi-surprised look and goes off to check on it.
That's the last we see of him for about another 20 minutes.
The next time he's in our area, all I do it catch his eye and smile tiredly in his direction like "yep, sorry man, chili hasn't teleported in yet" and he does one of those well-telegraphed facial "crap, forgot AGAIN" expressions.
A few minutes later, he gets back to the table to let us know that he rush-ordered the chili and that it would be there soon, and about ten minutes after that it arrives.
Except he didn't bring me any spoon to eat the chili, so I decided to opt for the better part of valour, wiped off Liz's soup spoon and, starving as I was, finally had my lunch.
I finally asked if we could get some water and glasses, and those were brought to us as well.
Also to note: other people had arrived by then and they had received full sets of cutlery, glasses, and water from other waiters.
So let's sum up:
- Slow service
- No follow-up
- Poor bedside manner
- Miscommunication
- Poor knowledge of their own stock
- No apologies or compassion
- Charging us anyway for something we didn't want
- Sour looks
- Lack of two different kinds of basically essential-to-the-meal cutlery
- Forgetting to place an order. TWICE.
- No water or glasses for the table
- No drink requests were solicited or taken
And somehow we stayed pleasant through this entire experience because we have a historical fondness for Santropol.
I don't think I'll be going there again anytime soon anymore.
Over and out.
