last spring - right before Phil left for Chicago we went to SOMA Creekside for dinner. We were waited on by a very nice and professional young lady named Ashley and she led us through a number of good choices on the menu. We knew there would be no time for a return before heading north for the summer but vowed to come back in the fall... so here we headed, in just a little over two weeks after arrival, for dinner. This turned out to be the complete opposite of our last experience at this place.
we unfortunately had said nice things about the place to our dining companions so we looked quite stupid as the evening progressed since the service was worse than any we have had in ages and the food was only passable in most instances and in two dishes - inedible (the jerk chicken which our friend ordered and left on her plate and the crispy calamari salad which I had and was so overwhelmed by the wasabi in the wasabi vinaigrette dressing that I only made it half way through before giving up on it.
to say the waiter was inept was an understatement - we ordered a round of appetizers - of which he got two wrong completely and therefore they weren't served together - and meanwhile one of our party had a main while the late appetizers of others were finally served... a total mess! so when we ordered our mains we were extremely specific about what dishes we wanted and despite Phil literally reading the whole line of the menu item TWICE to the guy - he brought the wrong dish again... and so we had "two rounds of mains as well" and certainly not intentionally.... actually it was three because the one had been brought as an appetizer by mistake - so that diner was really done before two other diners had their meals delivered and the fourth diner (with the mistaken order -which he had repeated twice slowly and read the WHOLE main with the set up to the waiter each time) didn't get his main meal until the rest of us were "finished" -
it was a complete and total fiasco, so when he asked if we wanted dessert we said "no, thank you" and asked for the checks. then to add insult to injury as they say - he couldn't make change for one of the twenties one couple gave him in payment for the meal... seriously???
To make sure I give the whole story - the guy did bring us some half stamped "rewards cards" for something called 10/10 at lunch as a peace offering - but we would have really preferred better service and we all agreed they would be recycled the minute we got home... this was the worst performance by a service team member I can remember in years
Phil and I discussed whether they had found this guy on the street and asked him to sub for someone at the last minute... maybe he was on drugs- he didn't even seem to know the food terms from the menu.... and confused a request for the pork appetizer (which was quite specific) with the pork main even though we only ordered one round of food at a time... then he confused a fish with risotto side with a completely different prep and set up... ABYSMAL....
our first time this year - and our last time ever.... the kitchen seemed over taxed with only TWO tables of patrons and the waiter was either stupid, on drugs, or wasn't even really a waiter... one mistake in an order - hey it can happen but four major errors in spite of the diners reiterating their orders is really inexcusable.
ridiculously bad experience... forewarned is forearmed....
so that put into terrific perspective our decent if not stellar meal the night before- at another Bradenton restaurant (on AMI) the Sign of the Mermaid- where we had excellent service - really terrific and a good meal with superb pie for dessert (the woman of the couple who own the place is an AWARD winning pie baker!)
both places are BYO with a corkage fee- so on equal footing there--- but only there- if you are choosing between the two there is a clear winner here- go to Mermaid...
our apologies to John and Barb who suffered through the evening- the saving grace is we all had good company to commiserate with about the experience. And now back to Romania...
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