Waiter #22 lazy, impolite, chased after us outside the restaurant asking for tips and saying 'Is this IT?!?"
I invited guests who were visiting Prague to have a lovely dinner in La Casa Argentina on 11th of September. We made a reservation in advance and were kindly seated at our table. Later on our waiter 'Waiter #22' came to the table .
As it was my 3rd time in this restaurant I already knew what service & food to expect and that is excellent.
We ordered Aperol Spritz and two bottles of water before ordering food. After we finished our aperitives the waiter #22 came, we ordered carpaccio for starters, the main dishes, 4 caipirinha cocktails.
The drinks came fast and the food followed soon after, however instead of bringing me what I ordered (rare steak), he brought me a medium. Of course, I pointed out that this is not what I wanted and he brought me a 'rare' replacement and apologized by saying that he made a mistake (which is fine by me, mistakes happen).
The problems arose when we finished eating the steak & drinks. We were sitting with empty cocktail glasses and it took the waiter another 10min (after we have finished everything) to come and ask us if we'd like some cocktails to which we said yes.
Later on, with the 3rd batch of cocktails finished we decided to buy some cognac to go with some rare cigars I have brought from my personal humidor. This time we already had to lift up our hands and ask waiter #22 to come and serve us (we never had to do it with the other waiters in La Casa Argentina and believe it's very impolite).
When we asked him, which cognac goes well with the cubans we had, he told me that only the sommelier knows and continued pointing his finger at the 9000czk (300EUR) for a 0.04cl cognac. Now the sommelier is another different story, he was around there, but was spending time chatting at someone's table all night long. The waiter didn't even try to call the sommelier!
I told the waiter that I'd like to purchase a bottle and I'd like a bottle which will match the taste of my cigars. After hearing the word 'bottle' he told me to come with him and in a narrow passage at the kitchen he started pointing at a glass case at the most expensive bottles. Once again I said that I WILL NOT PAY extraordinary amounts for something that might not even MATCH THE CIGARS.
Then he brought me to the bar and started showing other, less expensive bottles and again I asked him, what will match my cigar. Not having answered my question and being dragged through all the restaurant, which in my opinion, is BEYOND unprofessional I took the bottle Park Borderies. For your information, I would never drag the customer through all the restaurant and offer him cognac about which I have no knowledge. He should have called the sommelier in the first instance.
When we asked for the bill & got it delivered he didn't care about us at all, my guests from abroad told me: "when we were ordering he was doing a half ass job and now, since we are not ordering and paying, it seems that we do not exist". After another 10min he appeared to collect the money.
We covered the bill of 6500CZK (roughly 240EUR) and for a tip I decided to leave no more than 100CZK (3.7EUR), which in my opinion is too much for the service we have got from the waiter 22.
The waiter knew he was serving us badly and therefore was standing quite close to collect the tip as soon as we left. Ironically, that was the only time he cared about what's happening at our table.
When we left the waiter ran after us and asked me in an impolite tone "IS THIS IT?!". I told him the points which were very unsatisfactory for us and that he did a bad job. After that he said OK, turner around and walked away. I never had a waiter running after me and, in my opinion, a waiter should run after you only if you have not paid your bill. He could have asked us politely to provide some feedback for future customers, however he chose to be unprofessional and insult me in from of my guests.
I definitely recommend the food in La Casa Argentina, however if you can, ask for a table not served by "Waiter 22" and if you do get him, ask for a replacement. He is lazy, greedy, disrespectful and should be removed permanently from the service industry. read more