Sutori - Stories Tagged With 'restaurant'

Perfect Service

Fri, 04 Aug 2006 11:28:26 -0700

I’m not one to demand good customer service, but I expect it. If I don’t get it, I’ll never good back and complain about it to my friends.

I’m not one to seek a great customer experience, but when it happens, I’ll cherish the moment and brag about it to the world.

Case in point: Gary Danko. Restaurant in San Francisco.

You go here, you'll witness a PERFECTION in service that adds to the flavourness of the food on your palette. You might even forget about the food itself to observe their orchestrated movements, their subtle hand gestures to communicate with each other in an unspoken manner that respects the ambiance of the environment. They never interupt, but they never leave you unforgotten.

Really, I don't remember what I ate, but I'll go back there time and time again.

great souvlaki, great service

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 11:00:21 -0700

With our busy lives, we tend to order out during the week, and one of our favorite places to order from is Mr. Greek's (http://www.mrgreek.com). If you live in Toronto and vicinity, I'm sure you've eaten there once. It is somewhat expensive for delivery, but the food is always great and timely, and there's so much of it that it we usually make 2 meals out of it (Hmmm cold souvlaki is great...).

A couple of weeks ago, we ordered our 'usual' meal from them, 2 chicken souvlaki dinners, 4 chicken souvlaki skewers and fries (for the kids). When it arrived, we opened our chicken dinners, and noticed that they were pork instead of chicken. Now, pork souvlaki is very good as well, and we did not want to send the food back, but we called anyway and spoke to the manager. He felt very sorry for the mistake, offered to replace the food (which we did not want), and without even asking, offered us a $20 credit on our next order.

I'm not sure if the experience at other locations would always be like this, but if you're looking to order in, and want greek food, Mr. Greek always treats you right (well at least us:)).

Smokin' Mad

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 22:04:01 -0700

You know this place on Granville Isle: it's a safe bet for a better class of feedbag. We were passing through the neighbourhood last Saturday night and thought we'd pop in for a bite. Ah, alright: it was our 12th anniversary so maybe expectations were a little higher. But it wasn't to be: where there's smoke there's fire.

We stepped forward to the hostess stand with some trepidation: 'Did we call? No." I glanced at her table assignment map and saw it was half-empty. "Yes sir, I think we can fit you in. Please follow Julia." So we trudged up our second set of stairs and weaved our way through the tables. And then surprisingly, through doors held open to the deck. “Excuse me, uh, is it cold out here?” my sleeveless wife asked. “Oh no, it’s almost completely enclosed and we heat it.”

So we plopped ourselves down and were amiably greeted by our server—big smiling James. James worked us through the fresh sheet, steered us away from the silly mix-based cocktails, and onto a nice Pinot Noir. But no sooner had he departed to decant… there it was.

The smell.

I have to say, it’s been a long time since I’ve been in a restaurant with smokers. I’m not one of those violent opposers of that hideous addiction. You make your own choices, right? But I must admit that when I saw the couple behind me light up, my first thought was, “well, the good news is they’re going to die soon.” My second thought was, “how the hell can this be? I’m sitting in a restaurant, about to shell out a hundred for a quick meal, and I’m going to have to lick an ashtray during it?

So I raised this to the attention of smiling James. “No problem sir, would you like to sit over by the rail? I think there’s more fresh air over there.” Uh-oh. “No James: your hostess did not tell me that she was seating us in the smoking section—you’ll need to seat us with those-that-choose-life, if you plan on pouring that wine for us.” Now, not-so-smiling James delivers the shot across my bow (and I quote verbatim); “Sir. This is not a smoking section. It is an area of the restaurant where people are allowed to smoke."

Well, in fine Coach form, I LOST IT! My wife slumped in her seat as I arose from mine. She’d seen this movie before: something like Reservoir Dogs and I’m Mr. Blonde. The couple next to us got into the fray; “no, sit—we don’t need to smoke. Actually we’ve fallen off the wagon. It will be good for us not to smoke. Please! Oh please sit!” Too late, itchy trigger finger.

I won’t over-dramatize it (more than I have.) The facts are true: hostess had a half-empty restaurant, sat us in what seemed to be a fully enclosed sun room, half the place lit up after we sat down, the other half of us looked aghast and reacted in our own individual ways, and we had to breath dense carcinogenic smoke. The wait staff was unapologetic.

So I’m posting this as a simple warning. If you want to eat at the Sandbar, and you don’t want to suck cigarette fumes, indicate you will not be seated in “an area of the restaurant where people are allowed to smoke.”

Great Cuban Food on the Cheap

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 12:30:01 -0800

This is a great neighborhood BYOB restaurant that my wife and I frequent quite often with friends. The prices are VERY reasonable, 4 people with appistiers, dinner and coffee is usually under $50. I recommend getting in there before 7:30 on weekends if you don't want to chance waiting for a table to open up.

The safest bet is any of the chicken dishes on the menu.

The friendly wait staff does not rush you so if you want a quick bite you might get frustrated.

1440 W Chicago Ave.
Chicago, IL 60686 (312) 243-3303