garyguthrie wrote:Two friends and I recently ate at Havana Rumba for what must be the 50th time and, at least to us, it seemed like the service and attention was starting to slide.
Small things like requests for "no tomatoes" on the Tostones con Pollo resulted in a gaggle of tomatoes and without any melted Monterey cheese; the Ensalada de Casa -- which is clearly identified in the menu as "Spring mix, tomatoes, cucumbers, avocadoes and queso blanco" came with a single pinky-sized sliver of avacado and, when questioned, the waitress came gnathair close to poking her finger in the salad and said, "See, there's some avocado".
When we complained at closing, the waitress said she would take off the cost of the Coca-Cola as reparation. Yeah. We had to ask for a manager who apologized (but defended the misnomer of "avocado piece" versus the "avocadoes" as listed in the menu) and gave us a gift certificate to offset our experience, but the questions still linger.
We always felt the service at HR was some of the most attentive in town and maybe this is a one-time low point, but it does raise subjective concerns. I'm not in the know about whether the change in ownership has created this slack -- I just know a few less people who are going to be double-checking how bad we really want to go there the next time.
I'm kinda glad when I see posts like this that I am no longer in the biz....And Will, I understand you wanting to defend one of your favorite places. Here's my take: I'm not a huge fan of HR....I am a VERY picky eater and find it hard to find something on the mneu that fits into my picky diet. I have been a few times, with friends and never really noticed exceptionally wonderful or exceptionally poor service. Having said that, I do have to agree with Will on the "pickiness" of this posting. By stating that the server said, "See, there's some avocado." makes me think that the initial complaint was more like "there's no avocado in this salad and the menu says there is" rather than, "There's not as much avocado as I had hoped for. May I please get some more on the side?" Had THAT been the case, and the server huffed and puffed, or said they were going to be an extra charge, or rolled her eyes or whatever, then I can see bringing it up....but otherwise, you have to understand that restaurants strive for consistency, but people do make mistakes.
Secondly, I hate tomatoes. I don't want them to touch my food, I dont' want to smell them, and I don't want to see them. Had my food come out with tomatoes, I would have sent it back. But, realize too, kitchen staff make the same things OVER and OVER again...they could do it in their sleep. It's habit. You have NO CLUE how many times I would look at a ticket that said "no romano cheese", repeat it in my head while I was topping with marinara, then sure enough, I would turn around and put romano cheese on it....creatures of habit; everyone's guilty of that.
Finally, I understand that restaurants (and other places) have off days. And it's extremely disappointing when you're hoping for the same great experience, but leave less than satisfied, BUT, to say that you're going to have to double-check before you go back....seriously? If this happened often, or if you had raw chicken, or hair in your food, or saw mice, I could see why you would have to rethink going back, but because you didn't get as much avocado as you'd like? I guess I've just learned not to sweat the small stuff....shit like that will give you wrinkles....
