awful!!! train wreck! hot mess!!!. tonight was our first experience at ep, and will certainly be our last. apparently they were running some special and so everyone in the world was there. i was willing to wait for a table though. when we arrived, there were two customers standing at the host desk waiting to pick up carry out orders so we got in line behind them. shortly after, two other couples arrived and stood behind us. on several occasions, at least 3-4 employees looked right at all of us standing there but were apparently too busy to help us.... although i really don't understand this - it takes seconds to get a person's name and party size.
after a while, 3 employees came over to the host desk and began debating what party to call next. they were working off a scrap of paper that they'd been using to keep track of people, when they finished deliberating, one of them simply called the party's name out, to all of us standing in their little waiting area (6x10 square feet) - who were still waiting to put our names in. because the waiting space was so cramped, most people waiting for tables were outside on the patio. but the host did not go out there and call the names, and so when the person didn't respond (cause its pretty hard to hear someone yelling your name when you are outside and they are inside a busy restaurant), he just moved on to the next party. meanwhile, other people from the patio were constantly coming in and out checking to see if their name had been called/would be called, since they were outside where they couldn't hear the host. so there was this constant flow of traffic and confusion in and out of this little space, all while we were just trying to put our name in.
finally someone aknowledged one of the carryout people ahead of us and i heard her explain that she'd called in her order almost an hour ago. the guy came back with herfood(probably cold), and then disappeared. from that point on, no one returned to the host desk.
take note here folks. i am not complaining about having to wait for a table. it never got to that point because no one greeted us or took our names down to wait for a seat. we stood there for 20 minutes! the other person in front of us was still there waiting for her carryout order when we decided to leave.
never in my life have i ever seen such a train wreck. nor have i ever had to wait so long just to put my name in!!!! 20 minutes is entirely too long to stand and wait for a host to show up and do his job. i dont care how busy you are, you have time to write my name on your little scrap of paper!!! ridiculous! their process for greeting and managing their flow of customers is beyond inefficient and their alleged "host(s)" were completely incompetent.
i will never go back. ever.