i was urged by my extended family to write a review about our recent experience at coast. first of all, it’s worth mentioning there were 9 of us from our 3 families, and we have independent tastes and opinions. but not this time; there was unanimity with our reactions. to start at the beginning…
we wanted to go to blue water café where we’ve visited often and never had a bad meal, but they were unable to accommodate us, so i was tasked with finding a suitable substitute that specializes in seafood. having been told in the past that trip advisor’s reviews are unreliable because many are posted by shills, i cross-referenced theirs with urban spoon and yelp in the hope it would add credibility. coast was highly-rated by all three websites, so i booked us at there at 7:15 on a tuesday night. upon arriving we were relieved to see the restaurant was only half-full, and looked forward to an enjoyable dining experience. how wrong we were.
after ordering our meals, we waited for what seemed like a long time, and eventually one of us mentioned that to our server. at first she thought it hadn’t been that long, but after double-checking she realized it had been an hour since she’d submitted our order, and she apologized for the delay. we explained that my mom (who’s 82) was fading, and asked for her meal to be brought out first asap – she’d had ordered the sablefish special with the miso sauce. thegoodnews is it came out shortly after we complained about the long wait. the bad news is it was mushy and unimpressive. it got sent back.
meanwhile, the rest of us were still waiting for our appetizers which finally arrived after mom’s unpalatable sablefish, approx. 75 minutes after we’d ordered. they consisted of assorted sushi rolls and salads, and were average at best. when our entrees finally arrived (at least 90 minutes after we’d ordered our meals), most of us were disappointed, and at least three of us barely ate them even though we were starving by this point.
it’s worth noting that our server did a prettygoodjob of addressing our comments, although it took one of us to bring the hour delay to her attention. it should have been her responsibility to be aware of timing instead of us having to complain after receiving no food for an hour, not even bread – apparently you have to buy the bread at coast. after she was made aware of the problem, someone in a higher position should have come to our table to inquire and attend to us immediately. that didn't happen for at least another 15 minutes from the time we complained.
a man, i assume a manager, came to our table, and his manner was somewhat cordial, yet bordered on aloof, as if the visit to our table was an unwelcome obligation, rather than an opportunity to make things right. shortly after his visit, a woman, possibly an asst. manager, was dispatched to our table, and she tried to make amends by offering an extra bottle of wine and an assortment of free desserts. we told her we didn’t want more wine or desserts - frankly, by that time we just wanted to get the hell out of there - but she insisted and wouldn't take no for an answer, so we accepted the desserts, which by the way were fine.
she also suggested we let her know how many of us didn’t like our meals, and that they would deduct those from the bill. that sounds reasonable, but in our experiences, high end restaurants don’t delegate that responsibility to the customer; they take charge of the situation themselves, usually offering to tear up the bill, or cut it by 50%, etc.
to make a long story short, by the server’s own admission, there was no excuse for the inordinate length of time it took to get our meals - she grudgingly admitted that in the 1-1/2 years she’d been working there she’d never seen this kind of overall dysfunction, and blamed it on the chef was having an off night.
bottom line: some of food was disappointing, the rest was average, and the management’s professionalism was sorely lacking.
i would not recommend this restaurant to anyone, that is, unless they’re masochistic and enjoy paying top dollar for sub-par food in an establishment where the management barely conceal the idea they're doing you a favour by letting you eat there.