Faro Italian Grille

[KarenM]

First Jetskier, I sincerely thank you for coming to Faro Italian Grille! Before working in the restaurant industry I had experiences similar to yours and wondered why I couldn't be seated earlier.

I was working at Faro last night, and what may not have been noticeable is that we had two large parties for dinner - one, a party of 25, was seated in the back room which is not visible from the lobby.

The Management at Faro is committed to providing an excellent dining experience to all guests and believe great service is an important part of that experience. Rather than seat a guest and disappoint them with a long wait for their meal, the manager chose to inform guests of a wait for tables, and accepted the risk that guests may choose to dine elsewhere. Please believe that none of us like to see a guest leave, but it is preferable to us providing a disappointing experience.

I believe we met before at another establishment (we had a discussion about Chefs and their love of heavy metal music !), and I truly hope that you consider visiting again!

[Resident 2B]

Originally Posted by KarenM

First Jetskier, I sincerely thank you for coming to Faro Italian Grille! Before working in the restaurant industry I had experiences similar to yours and wondered why I couldn't be seated earlier.

I was working at Faro last night, and what may not have been noticeable is that we had two large parties for dinner - one, a party of 25, was seated in the back room which is not visible from the lobby.

The Management at Faro is committed to providing an excellent dining experience to all guests and believe great service is an important part of that experience. Rather than seat a guest and disappoint them with a long wait for their meal, the manager chose to inform guests of a wait for tables, and accepted the risk that guests may choose to dine elsewhere. Please believe that none of us like to see a guest leave, but it is preferable to us providing a disappointing experience.

I believe we met before at another establishment (we had a discussion about Chefs and their love of heavy metal music !), and I truly hope that you consider visiting again!

Great explanation.

I feel guests being told of a long wait at a rather empty restaurant need to be made more aware of the situation. If I was simply told the wait was 45 minutes and the place was rather empty, I would not have been happy. If I was told the reason behind the long wait, I would have either sat down and had a drink waiting for a table or I would have left happy knowing the restaurant was doing the right thing.

Thanks for clearing this up. Keep up the good work!

R2B

[tis]

Karen, why wouldn't somebody have explained to Jetskiier the situation-large party etc.????

[jetskier]

Originally Posted by KarenM

First Jetskier, I sincerely thank you for coming to Faro Italian Grille! Before working in the restaurant industry I had experiences similar to yours and wondered why I couldn't be seated earlier.

I was working at Faro last night, and what may not have been noticeable is that we had two large parties for dinner - one, a party of 25, was seated in the back room which is not visible from the lobby.

The Management at Faro is committed to providing an excellent dining experience to all guests and believe great service is an important part of that experience. Rather than seat a guest and disappoint them with a long wait for their meal, the manager chose to inform guests of a wait for tables, and accepted the risk that guests may choose to dine elsewhere. Please believe that none of us like to see a guest leave, but it is preferable to us providing a disappointing experience.

I believe we met before at another establishment (we had a discussion about Chefs and their love of heavy metal music !), and I truly hope that you consider visiting again!

Hi Karen,

Thank you for the professional response.

I think that the reception desk folks can use a bit of training. If they explained that there were a couple of large parties and the kitchen was currently capacity limited, I would have been happy to wait. When you look at a relatively empty dining room with no one waiting in the reception area and are simply told that it will be 45 minutes it becomes a "huh?" moment.

The other suggestion is that you strongly recommend reservations. I don't think that you are really ready for walk in traffic that might strain your current capacity.

We will give it another shot another day (with a reservation :-) ).

Jetskier

[Rusty]

It seems like the number of cars in the parking lot would have given you a hint that something was going on there.

[jetskier]

Originally Posted by Rusty

It seems like the number of cars in the parking lot would have given you a hint that something was going on there.

The parking lot was pretty sparse....I would guess that there were about 30 cars total. The side room was empty and the dining room visible from the front was only a few filled tables. There was no one waiting in the foyer. It was about 5:00 on a Saturday (early) and off season.

As Karen indicated, there were a couple of large parties in the back and that is what fully subscribed them. If we were told that, we would have probably stayed. However, an empty looking restaurant with a long wait did not compute.

I think that Karen provided a good explanation and we will try it another day. My conclusion is that they are capacity limited at this point (reasonable) and it makes no sense to go there without a reservation. That is what we will do in the future.

Jetskier

[KarenM]

Thank you all for your responses! I will definitely pass on the recommendation that guests be informed of the reason for an extended wait for a table. Our hostesses do a great job, I think possibly (like myself) they did not know the reason for a delay would impact someone's decision to wait or to leave. I learned something today!

[Denny Crane]

I think it's better to be honest, as in this case. Just because there are tables open doesn't mean a restaurant isn't busy. We don't know what it takes to plan and staff every night. On the other hand if someone was seated wiith no mention of a wait time we'd be reading about how slow the service was! Can't win. To me, wait times might suggest something worth waiting for.
DC

[Phantom]

KarenM -- glad you jumped in .. I think you did a great service for Faro by doing so - showing you are watching the "Critic's" Reviews & responding professionally.

It is a good sign that a Restaurant is listening.

To others, regardless of where you go to dine ... be aware that another very common experience is that there is a wait for tables ... as you look around you see many open and available and you begin to get suspect .... . in reality, for any number of reasons, the establishment simply does not have on enough wait staff. This can be due to poor planning or simply an unexpected slam of larger parties.


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