caroly02's Profile
RW Dinner at Chez Henri
It takes a lot for me to complain on a public forum about a restaurant. Actually, I've only done it once and that was during a disastrous 26th Birthday dinner at the Red House. But dinner at Chez Henri last night qualifies as one of those meals deserving of some complaint. And when I do get angry, it's NEVER about the food. It's ALWAYS about the service. I had reservations for Chez Henri last night. I had wanted to go for some time, since I've heard that they have an amazing bar menu with French and Cuban influences, so I was looking foward to this meal.
When we entered the restaurant, I noticed that it was packed. We were handed menus as we sat and perused them for a bit. Chez Henri only gives you two options for Restaurant Week, so it didn't take us long to decide. However, it did take a while for our waiter to show up, and nearly 10 minutes had elapsed before he decided to grace us with his presence.
He asked us if we wanted to order drinks (a friend ordered a mojito) and was sharp enough to notice that we'd been sitting there so long that we were also ready to order. After we ordered, he went off and we scarcely saw him again for the rest of the night. The runners took care of us from there on out. We were given a basket of bread which had these awesome little round rolls enhanced with cheese and roasted peppers and our appetizers arrived soon after that. Everyone else at the table ordered a soup made from Maduros (ripe plantains) while I enjoyed a simple arugula salad that was well dressed and quite tasty.
The runners removed our plates and this was when we proceeded to wait for our entrees to arrive. Now, since this was a fairly small restaurant, I could actually see most of the tables around us. I noticed that the table of 4 behind us had ordered about 5 minutes before us and gotten their entrees nearly 15 minutes before we got ours. This could certainly be blamed on the kitchen, but not once did our waiter come and check on us. During this time, I was also able to notice how well staffed the restaurant was. There were 3 waiters (for a not huge dining room) in addition to at least 3 runners and a manager. Our water glasses were kept filled by the runners, but that was about how much notice we got.
Eventually our entrees arrived, and you could tell that an order of pork had spent a bit of time under a heat lamp; it was a bit dry, though they did give a very generous serving.
I had ordered a tilapia on a bed of rice with a red curry coconut sauce. I was surprised at how well prepared my fish was. It actually tasted much more Thai than Cuban, but I really liked the moist fish along with the topping of crisp, lightly pickled veggies.
Our waiter failed to check in on us and even give the cursory "How is your meal?" during this time. After finishing our entrees, our plates were finally taken away by a runner, and we proceeded to wait for our desserts (which we had ordered at the beginning of the meal.) During this time, I also noticed that the waiter had forgotten an order of Cuban fries, but it was too late for those.
When our desserts arrived, the rest of the table enjoyed a sweet, dense cake finished with a marshmallow topping and surrounded by a pool of chocolate-coffee cream, while I had a mango sorbet.
Then the real waiting began. We had been at dinner for nearly two hours at this point. The table of 4 behind us had left long ago, as had another table that was seated shortly before we arrived. Our plates remained visibly finished and untouched before us. I even had my napkin on my plate. Meanwhile, I started counting the number of times our waiter walked past us and utterly ignored our presence. He made about 12 trips past us (as I said, this is a small restaurant) and during this time, we began to debate what exactly we had done to deserve such awful awful service; such flagrant neglect and rudeness. We weren't overly picky or demanding. None of us had made a special request. Even the runners were ignoring us. As I looked around at the other tables, I noticed that no one else was receiving this type of treatment. The dining room was still well staffed and there were a few empty tables by this point. Finally, we asked for the check, and even that didn't arrive promptly. (It was also missing the order of Cuban fries, which the waiter had never bothered to enter).
The only conclusion we could arrive at was that our entire table hadn't ordered drinks. (except for the mojito) and with the waiter, knowing that the bill wouldn't be bumped up anymore, he felt that it was OK to simply ignore us. This is the second time that this has happened to me in a month. (the other time was with dinner Taberna de Haro when our waiter went MIA). This was truly frustrating and I was mad. When we finally paid the bill, I refused to allow my boyfriend to tip any more than 15% (he's a very generous tipper and normally gives 20%. I often think he overtips) and dinner ended up taking 2.5 hours. We were all exhausted after the meal and stumbled out of the restaurant, full, but certainly unsatisfied.
And I'll conclude with this mini rant. By and large, the Restaurant Week meals that I've had in Boston have been quite good; better than the ones I'd had in NY when I lived there. But for restaurants, this is your time to put your best foot foward and introduce yourselves to a new audience. I don't think we should blithely excuse shoddy service, poor food and long waits on Restaurant Week. It can be done well and if so, I'll return to that restaurant in the future (Union and Mistral). And restaurants are not required to participate in Restaurant Week. If you don't want to do it well, then why bother? Plenty of restaurants can't justify the cost and don't participate. For me, I will never visit Chez Henri again. As I've said a million times before, great service can make up for mediocre food, but poor service will never make up for the most delectable, luxurious, awesome meal in the world.
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