re: happy birthday!? :(. as a previous reviewer had mentioned, you are adding insult to injury by calling your customers liars, rather then properly tending to the issues at hand. we were never told there would be any additional charge for the ingredients, nor an amount for them, obviously. your server specifically stated that he would have to ask the kitchen if they would be willing to prepare the dish differently because it did not come with spinach or walnuts in it. he returned saying "yes, they will do it, i took care of you." we were a party of 7, and everyone in that party (with the exception of my 5 month old, who can't speak for himself) heard this exactly the same.
in my review, i never stated that there wasn't a reduction in the bill offered after you realized it wasn't actually closed. i didn't mention it period, simply because after the drama from the restaurants' end over a simple issue, it was like putting a band aid on a severed limb.
and speaking of bills, i've noticed that you have, on more than just this occasion, publicized the contents of diners final bills including the last 4 digits of their credit cards. once again, this is a perfect example of managements dramatic lack of professionalism. my greatest regret is not having read more of the negative reviews you have received in the first place. i encourage everyone reading this to take some serious things into consideration before dining here. though there are good reviews from other diners, generally related to the taste of the food which i also mentioned isn't bad, the management always responds in the same fashion. they start by attempting to put themselves in the right, then finish with stating that they want to invite people back in, and that they want to fix things.
you don't get customers to reconsider your establishment by insulting them, then offering them reconciliation. we returned the certificates, as i specifically mentioned, simply because our interest is not in free or discounted food. we only hoped for a pleasant, professional experience, which we did not receive.
you have worsened this by the opening nature of your response, we again will not be returning, and encourage others to consider other dining options first.
-----20 jan, 2013-----
happy birthday!? :(. we started off with a fairly unreasonable wait for a party that called ahead, to arestaurantthat was far from full. our server was attempting to be helpful, but soon seemed to become more overbearing, and occasionally rude. food took a while to come out in a far from full house setting.
the food, i admit, was decent, and would be somewhat reasonable for the price if it wasn't for sneaky little things like charging you $4 for adding a few pieces of spinach into a pasta dish. (a detail not mentioned by our server.) server grew increasingly less-attentive throughout the meal.
by the time everything was ready to be settled, the $4 spinach issue was mentioned to management, which at first, spoke around the issue and left. shortly thereafter, a new manager came to ask if everything was ok, and the issue was again brought up.
his response was a plethora of ridiculous excuses, all the way down to the "high cost" of their italian spinach. (we dine out at restaurants an average of 10 times a week during lunch and dinner, and have never had such a simple issue meet so much argument and contest.) furthermore, i can buy an entire bunch of this "imported spinach" from most markets for roughly a dollar. the principle of the matter was simple, there was no mention of an additional charge, and certainly not one so outrageous. (as you know, normal restaurants charge roughly a dollar for add-on's or minor upgrades.)
after saying the bill couldn't be changed because it was "against the law", the manager tried to ask if he could do something else to resolve the issue. (he though i had already paid with a credit card, and claimed it was illegal to change the transaction, which we all know is not true. it is done daily in retail outfits everywhere.) once i explained to him we hadn't paid, and his server had misinformed him, he burst off to the kitchen, then came back apologetic for all the lies his server had told him about our meal and our bill.
he then boasted to have "suspended him immediately", which is disturbingly unprofessional. under normal circumstances, a good manager would respond to a customer by saying: "i truly appreciate you bringing this to my attention. we will have to go through some extensive training exercises with our employee to assure we focus on improving some of their weaker points." instead, he thought we would find comfort in someone getting suspended from what was likely a sub-par job in the first place, considering the overall performance of the restaurant.
to top it all off, this embarrassing fiasco took place over about 25 minutes, and sadly, was during a first-time visit that was arranged for my farther-in-laws birthday.
upon departure we were offered $10 gift certificates, which we promptly returned, having no intentions of ever dining there again.