pretentious because they can be. i was working at the fox theatre this weekend (as part of the nutcracker production) and my colleague and i decided to go to baraonda for dinners between shows. we used to be regulars, and i couldn't remember why we stopped going. this weekend's visit reminded me all too well. when we entered the restaurant, we asked for a table for three and said our third party member would be arriving shortly; we were informed by the haughty hostess that we would not be seated until our entire party had arrived. i made a comment under my breath to my friend, and the hostess then remarked, "we're expecting a dinner rush and we just can't do that". while i understand about limited seating and dinner rushes, it was 4:30 in the afternoon and the restaurant was practically empty! plus, baraonda has expanded to at least three times bigger than its original size. our friend would have been 10-15 minutes behind us, at maximum.
we sat and waited, in the drafty entrance way (snotty hostess girl couldn't be bothered to offer us a seat at the bar) but finally we asked for a table for 2 and figured we could pull up a chair. when seated, we were put in the far back of the restaurant at a microscopic table. another couple were seated immediately next to us, as if to prove their point, yet it still took the restaurant a long time to fill up. the bread was at least 2 days old, the waiters were distant, hard to track down and very uninterested in us or the tables around us. the same couple next to us were looking at a dessert menu, but it took the waiter so long to return, they finally gave up and just decided to pay and leave.
i will say the pizzas are still good, but you can't buy a smaller version of their salads and everything is a la carte, so you wind up paying too much for the meal and definitely way too much for the pretentious ambience. did i mention that they've gone to using loud, very bad techno/electronica "background" music? (not really "background" when it's that loud)
yes, they will always have a crowd because they are the only one of two restaurants near the fox that hasn't closed. but that also means that they don't have to be courteous or accommodating. i should mention that i did tell the bitchy hostess that we were working and that we wouldn't be holding up a table for long...she could care less.
if you want agoodmeal, we have since discovered that the hotel indigo across the street (next to the georgian terrace) has agoodmenu and we had an excellent dessert and coffee after our less-than-satisfactory experience at baraonda. the bartender/waiter was super nice and the place wasn't crowded, yet the food was delicious and reasonable.