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| Ceia's Patrick Soucy, right, aims to please by being flexible. |
We love dining out in Boston and the 'burbs. But we don’t always love that we can’t hear our dining companion over the noise or that the server won’t look our way when all we want is another glass of (affordable) wine. We asked for your biggest Boston-specific dining pet peeves - read on to see the results, along with some suggestions for alternatives.
Please add, "I'm sorry I can't seat you because your entire party isn't here."
ReplyDeleteThis, at the Blue Room, the very last time I set foot in there.
Understandable if you're one of a party of 8. If you're 3 of 5, they should definitely seat you!
ReplyDeleteAdd the places that take reservations and then fail to seat you within five minutes of your reservation time. "Oh, we are running behind. It will be about 30 minutes". Totally unacceptable
ReplyDeleteThe most ridiculous offender of the "no substitutions" policy I've EVER personally encountered was Sonsei in Back Bay. They flatly refused to swap fries for a salad, lettuce & tomato, anything. Explanation? "The chef doesn't want anything interfering with the flavors he's created." Did I mention I was getting a CHEESEBURGER?!! For lunch, no less? No sympathy from manager, either. You'd think a well-dressed professional might get better treatment--or at least be looked at as a return lunch diner--but no.
ReplyDelete"the normal wine markup for a bottle is 30%":
ReplyDeleteOn what planet? Restaurants pay wholesale and markup the bottles 200-300% (that is, they charge 3-4 times what they pay, sometimes more and rarely less).
"it’s 100% for a glass":
Refer to the above. This isn't accurate either. Restaurants usually charge slightly more (by volume) for wine by the glass. A bottle is about 4.5 glasses and a common price for a glass is about 1/4 of the restaurant's bottle price. Of course, if the restaurant pours generously, the glass may be a good value. If the restaurant charges much more than 1/4 of the price of a bottle for a glass, don't buy the glass. In some cases, restaurants don't sell the same wines by the glass and by the bottle, in order to avoid disclosing the difference in markup.
"even if it means smaller pours":
Huh? One of the key ways restaurants/wine bars "bilk" customers is by gouging them for small glasses (tastes).
Alternatives include Bin 26:
Huh? Bin 26 is a great little restaurant with a nice wine selection, but their price (by volume) for wines by the glass is no bargain. They also have a nitrogen based pouring system for the wines by the glass, which preserves the freshness of the wine. More restaurants should use this type of system, and then give their customers a reasonable price per glass (since they don't have to be concerned about waste at the end of the night).
Agree! I hate those small half pour and full pour prices - very misleading. And as for Oak Long Bar, they have many decent wine by the glass (full huge pour)choices under $12
DeleteWhat about those of us who don't drink? Talk about being invisible! I usually end up begging my husband to order at least a glass of wine so that the server won't totally ignore us. Or I am forced to order an overpriced mocktail. (Although big ups to the bar at the Renaissance in the Seaport. Most excellent virgin mojito the other night!)
ReplyDeleteThe statistic on #3 is objectively false. Any restaurant only marking up bottles 30% is losing money. 100%+ is much more typical. Think about it...can you really get a bottle of Kim Crawford SB in a restaurant for $21 ($16 * 1.3)? The answer is no.
ReplyDelete