From: [an eater]
Date: Monday, October 1, 2007
To: eater complaints dept.
Subject: Why am I waiting??
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Can you guys PLEASE do something on the terrible pattern of "trendy" new restaurants saying there is a wait when there really isn't one? My boyfriend and I wanted to go to a Mission hotspot on Saturday night (I'll let you guess which one!), but we didn't have reservations or anything like that so I decided to call and see if I could make a resy for two at the last minute. No dice: just 45 minutes to an hour wait, which is silly in the Mission unless it's Delfina or Range.
We decided to brave through and go anyway. When we got there, it was still early (before 7) and there were several empty tables! STILL the hostess told us there were NO tables available and we should sit at the bar. 2 drinks and 20 minutes at the bar later, we were finally seated and the very tables that had been empty the entire time. Why the wait?
And this isn't the first time this has happened. It is just me or are these trendy restaurants trying to make themselves seem busier than they actually are? I mean, just seat us already!
You've just read the very first grievance filed with the Eater Complaints Department, your unedited platform for voicing poor dining experiences, gross restaurant trends, underhanded service issues and the like. Have a horror story that needs to be discussed? Operators are standing by.
