All stories about "Eater Complaints Department"

Thank you for visiting the Eater Complaints Department, your unedited platform for voicing poor dining experiences, gross restaurant trends, underhanded service issues and the like. Have grievances? Operators are standing by.

From: [an eater]
Date: Wednesday, May 28, 2008
To: eater complaints dept.
Subject: My Last Experience at Julius' Castle
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Well, where do I start? First and foremost, I am not surprised that there is a problem between the Landlord and the Lessee. When I had dinner at Julius' Castle with some friends on December 20, 2007, and I was happy with the quality of the food and the service, however, half the restaurant was closed for "so called" repairs. One of the main attractions of eating at the "Castle" is going out on the roof top and enjoying the incredible views. That wasn't available because the roof top was under repair (like half the restaurant)? What really clued me into the fact that Julius' Castle was having problems was several weeks after having dinner I received a parking ticket from SFMTA DPT. Apparently my vehicle was double-parked by their Valet Service while I was having dinner.

From: [an eater]
Date: Wednesday, March 5, 2008
To: eater complaints dept.
Subject: Blue Bottle Cafe Confusion
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One quick issue related to the new Blue Bottle Cafe. I have been there 3 times, once on Sunday at 10:30AM, which was great despite the large crowd. Went back on a Sunday at 9AM, when there was neither food nor coffee from the special Japanese machine despite the fact they open at 8. Went back on a Saturday at 11:15, once again no food because they don't serve food between 11 and 12 on Saturday. They said I could try on Sunday at 9, but I notified the person that I had been and there had been no food, and he then responded "well I don't work on Sunday, so I don't know".

Is this some sort of soft opening? Do you know why they don't post, either in the Cafe, on the door, or on the website, the hours that they serve food or special coffee? It seems pretty basic to do this, maybe they're still working out the kinks. I'm not going to drive back again to go park at 5th and Mission without knowing, I can just go to the Farmer's Market or Hayes Valley.

Thank you for visiting the Eater Complaints Department, your unedited platform for voicing poor dining experiences, gross restaurant trends, underhanded service issues and the like. Have grievances? Operators are standing by.

From: [an eater]
Date: Wednesday, December 6, 2007
To: eater complaints dept.
Subject: Dinner at Spruce like dinner in New York
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Our reservation (made two months ago) was for seven PM and we arrived very promptly. The hostess did not greet, did not welcome, did not smile. She told us that things were running a bit "slowly" and that they'd have to seat us in about 10 minutes. We were finally brought to our table at 7:26. My friend said: "Oh, this is like that New York thing where you show up on time for your reservation and they still make you wait an hour..."

After watching the hostess manage the floor, my Mom labeled her with the name "Miss Efficiency". Miss Efficiency seems to know how to get things done, but has zero personality while doing it. Mom said: "she needs....charm school." The service was overall a bit slip-shod for the prices. Our sommelier began to serve our second bottle of wine without removing the first empty bottle or any of the used glasses. Isn't a sommelier supposed to notice this type of thing? The moment you need to tell you sommelier to remove a glass things aren't going so well.

From: [an eater]
Date: Tuesday, November 20, 2007
To: eater complaints dept.
Subject: Regarding Plastic Bags and Farmers Markets
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I just had a comment and I'm not sure anyone but you and maybe your audience cares about it.

I noticed after going to the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market recently and then to the Marin Civic Center Farmers Market this past Sunday that EVERY vendor and nearly EVERY shopper had huge bunches of plastic bags.

I'm thinking that if even Supermarkets are forced to stop using plastic bags, that the very first organizations that should have at least self imposed a plastic bag ban should have been these Farmers Markets. Rainbow does just fine only having paper bags.

Seriously, after a few weeks of going to the Farmers Markets and the vendors only providing the horrible no handle paper bags, I think everyone would get the point and remember to bring their own bags.

Thank you for visiting the Eater Complaints Department, your unedited platform for voicing poor dining experiences, gross restaurant trends, underhanded service issues and the like. Have grievances? Operators are standing by.

From: [an anonymous restaurant owner]
Date: Friday, October 26, 2007
To: eater complaints dept.
Subject: YELP? they've got nothing on Citysearch!
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While yelp may just suck, Citysearch and their idiot reviewers are the worst out there! How about a "no citysearchers" campaign. I will proudly post the first sign. Who needs a bunch of anorexic bitches sharing a salad in their restaurant anyway? And don't even get me started on the shill factor.

Citysearch is the worst!!!

--Anonymous restaurant owner

Thank you for visiting the Eater Complaints Department, your unedited platform for voicing poor dining experiences, gross restaurant trends, underhanded service issues and the like. Have grievances about a restaurant-related issue? Operators are standing by.

From: [an eater]
Date: Thursday, October 4, 2007
To: eater complaints dept.
Subject: Looking for lunch in all the wrong places
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I ran into this problem the first time I had out of town guests who wanted to go to Michael Mina. Or Aqua. Or Gary Danko. Or -- well, we had to keep calling a lot of places, because we were looking for lunch.

Is there an on-line guide to which of the many amazing restaurants around here serve that mid-day lunch thing? And on what days? I note that you can break a lot of things like the sfgate.com guide to the 100 best restaurants (and zagat, and yelp) down by many different features -- cuisine, kid-friendly, location, etc -- but not by whether it's just dinner or not. At least not that I can tell. (Check out michaelmina.net and tell me if any hours are posted anywhere -- is it gauche to indicate when you're open? Am I gauche for asking?)

Also, some places like Bix trick you -- Friday lunch! Only! SPQR? Lunch, maybe, soon. Or later. Or now.

Thanks. See you somewhere at 1 PM.

G

Thank you for visiting the Eater Complaints Department, your unedited platform for voicing poor dining experiences, gross restaurant trends, underhanded service issues and the like. Have grievances about a restaurant-related issue? Operators are standing by.