Made reservations to celebrate a milestone for my 18 year-old son at Dresslers, and identified that event in the reservation made online. The evening started off shakily and then went downhill from there.
Two teammates were at the stand and they looked up coolly (no...smiles) when we arrived. My son offered that we have reservations and our last name. One member replied, “You have reservations?” Yes. “The name?” Name was offered again. “We don’t have a reservation in that name.” Ok, I get it, no system is perfect. I don’t blame the restaurant. The teammate looked over their shoulder to review the dining room, and offered, “We can seat you if you like.” Umm… we’re here, we thought we had reservations, and there were only two occupied tables. Would not a better response have be, “I’m sorry but I don’t have a reservation for you, but I am happy to seat you (smile), this way please.” We were also dressed in coats and ties, how about, “What brings you to us tonight?”
To the teammates’ credit they walked us to the table, waited for us to be seated and then handed us menus.
I opened my napkin and found a dirty knife.
Our waiter appeared in short order. His appearance was somewhat unkempt he mumbled a bit. He also swayed back and forth. Unkempt + mumble + swaying became more distracting as the night progressed.
Returning for our orders I explained that my son had never been to a steakhouse before and I asked that the offerings be explained. Sorry, but explaining the steaks as “small and juicy,” “flat” and “slightly thicker” weren’t sufficient in my opinion.
Our wedge salads were acceptable, but we were both presented with bitter cores and were thus unable to enjoy the entire experience. The waiter asked if we wanted salt or pepper on our salads and I requested pepper. The server disappeared for a moment and returned with a grinder which was placed in the middle of the table.
One positive throughout the night was as we emptied our water glasses they were discreetly filled by another party. However, our server spilled a fair amount of water and ice on our tablecloth during one refill.
The dinners were presented. The collards were excellent, kudos to the kitchen staff. My son ordered short ribs on risotto. He leaned to me and offered, “my risotto is better.” The strip I ordered was cooked as requested on the inside. The steak itself was overly salty, by a wide margin, and tougher to cut than I expected. I requested a sauce on the side and did not receive what was requested.
The waiter came by as my son was chewing his last bite of dinner and his plate was taken away. Since this is a finer dining establishment, I would prefer to have both dishes removed concurrently. As the server walked away my son’s silverware went flying onto an unoccupied table and the floor. Groan. The server returned with a dessert menu, identified his favorite and left. I looked at him with an, “I’m still eating” look. My son calmly waited while I finished my meal.
The carrot cake was ordered and was acceptable but under-presented with a small slice of strawberry on the side. No offer was made for coffee or a cocktail for me.
The bill arrived as the last bite of cake was taken with a standard, “I’ll take this when you are ready.”
Note: There were a couple of people walking about during our dinner and I assume they were front or back of house staff. Again I offer my opinion, I would expect one of them to check on us, especially as there were only a handful of tables occupied.
Sorry, almost every element of the night was a swing and a miss. One star is given for the really well-prepared collards mentioned above and the attention paid to our water glasses..More