Downtown restaurants and service

[Mary_Krupa]

Here is a copy of my posting from another area of this website that I posted on April 12th:

Four of us went there for the first time today at 12:30pm.  We walked in to a pleasant atmosphere with burnished gold walls trimmed in olive green. Not big but bustling with customers so the energy level was high. It was about 3/4ths full.

No one greeted us for about two minutes. We were taken to a table and given menus. No one asked us what we would like to drink. About 10 minutes later, we ordered. We still had to wait another 5 minutes for beverages. No silverware or napkins were placed on the table until another 5 minutes had passed. When I asked (for the second time) for an extra lemon slice for my tea, the waiter brought the bowl of lemon slices over and picked one out to give to me with his bare hands.

We ordered the pulled pork sandwich, a hamburger and two Italian board sandwiches. They were all good and the bread was fresh. They forgot to bring the cheese that was ordered for both Italian board sandwiches. We had to ask for this. The tea was fresh-brewed. My mother ordered a hot tea and was automatically given a bag of decaffeinated tea without being asked if that's what she wanted. The french fries were good, also. But no one brought over any ketchup which I ended up taking from another table. No one asked us if we wanted refills for our drinks. We had to ask for this. By then, we had a waitress rather than a waiter. She brought over the refill of iced tea and then we asked for a refill of the hot tea. She brought this over and then we had to ask for a refill of the third person's water.

I had heard very good things about this restaurant and that it was pricey. The lunch menu wasn't any more pricey than many other area restaurants. The prices were around $6 to $7 for the food alone. It probably goes up for dinner.

Definitely not impressed with the service. I would give it one more try, however, to support a downtown business and because the food was good.

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April 14, 2007

Please don't tell me that you need to make reservations for a party of four. That's absurd. Besides, I did call ahead and asked them how busy they were at 12:30pm and the woman who answered the phone said they had a party of 8 for 12 noon but that it should be okay at 12:30pm.

I don't understand how restaurants get these rave reviews and then you go there and are very disappointed. I go to restaurants because I enjoy eating out. The whole package to me is important. The quality of food is the most important but no matter how good it is, poor service will cause me never to go back. Also, the atmosphere of the restaurant both indoors and outdoors is important.

We had excellent service at Imperial Gardens Chinese Restaurant on South Avenue on a Friday night (This is not downtown but is related to the overall comments). From what I can tell, they do mainly carry-out business. The atmosphere is gloomy and the outside of the building is depressing. My coat still smells from being there last night. The ladies restroom had an ashtray that was full of cigarette butts. However, the General Tso's chicken and the egg rolls were very good. The service was excellent. I wish I had the waitress's name so that I could commend her publicly! So, in this case, even though the atmosphere leaves a lot to be desired, the quality of the food and the excellent service continue to draw me in.

[Mary]

I was a server for several years and i will totally admit that when the owner and his wife were there and on the floor i moved a heck of a lot faster. I was also only 16 at the time i started but the other 5 years i spent as a bookkeeper at a restaurant later just proved the same thing.

[northside lurker]

In my experience with poor service downtown, I don't think it would have helped if the owner was there or not.  (the owner may have been there, I don't know)  The server wasn't rude, they were just slow.  It became so crowded that the servers seemed overwhelmed.  Is it common for servers to work "on call" like a doctor?

[Towntalk]

A business luncheon is one thing, and certainly a reservation is in order, but for the average bloke, his wife and kids it's a horse of other feathers. Joe Bag of Doughnuts shouldn't have to make reservations, but should certainly expect to be treated with respect. The waitresses expect to be tipped, but if they failed to give good and proper service, they deserve absolutely nothing. As for the owners, if the service they provide is subpart, then I for one see no reason why they shouldn't be rated on this web site by name.

At one time there was a local publication that did just that.

One good way of rating would be to list all the restaurants and put stars next to the name ranging from 1 to 5 with 1 equaling bad and 5 very good. Not only would this help us decide where to spend our hard earned money but would encourage the owners to improve their service.

Lets face it, these restaurants are absolutely nothing without we the customers. We don't owe them a thing, not one bloody thing, but they owe us everything in good portion because we can either make them or break them. This is harsh I know but it's a simple fact of life.

By the way, I do admit that I'm very snooty about where I dine. The bill of fare must include items that I wouldn't be able to prepare at home. And I expect quality in both food and service for my hard earned dollars.

[jay]

I recently made reservations to hold a meeting for a party of ten at a Youngstown restaurant.  Because the manager knew we were coming, she called one extra person to work that evening to serve our table and a few others.  Everything went well.  We did not have to stand in line to be seated.  The service was excellent.  We had an enjoyable evening.   By the way, the manager asked us to hold our next meeting at her restaurant and we will. 

[Mary]

I have to agree with Townstalk on this. A business i worked at for 5 years refused to accept reservations for parties of less then 6. Then couples and foursomes would come in and have to wait and wait. If owners want customers to return they need to ensure service in a timely manner. And the main way for them to do that is BE THERE! an absent owner who is not walking around checking on his/her business and knowing what is going on is going to have staff that is not always working at 100%.
And more often then not anymore we go out to eat and the food we get is subpar.

[Towntalk]

What about a family of four that wants to stop in at a restaurant for a nosh after a show? Are you suggesting that  that every family of four should call the restaurants before giving them their business?

I can see it if that is a requirement of the eatery, but to be perfectly honest, few of the establishments with the exceptions of The Youngstown Club qualify as a Blue Ribbon establishment. A fry cook is hardly a Chief, and I hardly think that very many of the local cooks could qualify at the Dining establishments in New York or Paris.

The locals should be greatful for our business and treat us  in such a way as to encourage our repeat business, not act as if they are doing us a favor for which we should be eternally greatful. The measure of their success is the amount of traffic they can generate, and that traffic will not be there when they mistreat their customers.

[jay]

When dining with a party of four or more, it is a good idea to phone the restaurant and ask for reservations.  This makes it possible for the restaurant to anticipate the number of patrons to expect and hopefully they will schedule more workers.

[northside lurker]

I just replied to another discussion where someone gave a review of a downtown restaurant, and they thought the service was poor.  I had also received somewhat poor service at the same establishment.

I don't go out to eat a lot and I've never worked in the food industry, but it seems to me that poor service is often related to how busy a restaurant is.  The more people there are, the more overwhelmed the servers are.

The simple answer is that maybe they should hire more servers.  It's not that simple, though.  I regularly order carryout for lunch.  Most of the places I visit aren't busy on a regular basis.  Some days they are packed, and they are dead on others.  So, hiring more servers means they are losing more money on the days that business is slow.

Until patronage becomes more predictable, is there a solution to this problem?