Dishonest Manager and Careless Wait Staff
Do NOT eat here if you have a life threatening food allergy!! We came here for dinner on 9/16/17 with a party of 4. I asked our waitress if either of the fish dishes on the menu (halibut and salmon) were gluten free. She replied that to the best of her knowledge they were both gluten free, but that she would check for me. Upon returning, she confirmed that both meals were indeed gluten free, and I asked which one she recommended. She said that although the halibut was very good, she always recommends the salmon as it's her own personal favorite, and she claimed that it was always a hit. I ordered the salmon, and when it arrived I asked her once again if she was sure the dish was gluten free, as whatever the fish was sitting on looked suspicious to me. She once again assured me that it was definitely gluten free, so I assumed it was a different kind of grain and had a bite before realizing that what the salmon was sitting on top of tasted a lot like pasta to me, and I had just swallowed it. I called a different waiter over to the table and asked if he knew what that was under my salmon, and he said he had no idea. This was disconcerting in itself, since in my opinion the wait staff of a restaurant should be familiar with the meals that are routinely served there. I then called a second waiter over to the table, who confirmed that it was pasta that I had just eaten- on what was supposed to be a gluten free plate of food. He could see that I was not happy, and sent our waitress over. She was less than apologetic, however, and said in a cavalier manner that she had assumed I was only referring to the fish itself when I had asked her twice before if the meal was gluten free. Really?? Why would I inquire only about the fish?? I was referring to the entire meal. Why would anyone in their right mind request gluten free fish served over gluten? The waitress simply replaced my meal, and acted like it was no big deal. We decided to just take it out of her tip, and only left her 10%. We fully expected to have our meals comped, or even just my own meal comped, or maybe to receive a free dessert, or at the very least to have the manager come out to our table to apologize. That is what usually happens in decent establishments whenever something like this occurs, and Michaelangelo's has a great reputation, so we expected nothing less. Unfortunately, none of these things happened; it was just business as usual, and our waitress had clearly moved on as if nothing had ever happened. I requested to see the manager on our way out, in order to make him aware of the seriousness of what had happened in the interest of future patrons with serious food allergies. He apologized for not coming out to speak to us earlier, explaining that he had been "dealing with a situation in the back". I learned later that this was a blatant lie- my friend had seen him sitting at a nearby table, talking and laughing with friends, while all of this was going on. When I described what had happened, and the way our waitress had handled the situation, he initially attempted to defend her behavior by explaining that she had "misunderstood" me. How is that possible when I had asked her repeatedly if the dish was gluten free, and when she herself claimed to have recommended this particular dish all the time? She even ate it herself! She had to know that it was served over pasta. All she had to say was, "Yes, the fish is gluten free, but it's served over pasta, so we can just leave the pasta off or substitute a potato or something else." When I refused to accept his inadequate explanation, he did then offer to give us gift certificates to return at a later date, which I politely declined because we will not be returning ever again. He then offered to comp our entire meals, which I was initially very happy with, until he attempted to cheat us in a very underhanded and sleazy manner. The meal had been paid on 2 credit cards, and he took them both from us under the guise of giving us a refund. But when he later returned with the cards, only one of the receipts said "refund" across the top. The other said "sale" instead. He tried to get our friend to sign it, even though he couldn't see where it said "refund" anywhere on the slip. He refused to sign it until the manager could actually show him where it said "refund", and of course he then knew he'd been caught. He tried to explain it away by saying he must have given him the "wrong one." Well anyone who has ever worked in a restaurant knows that's yet another blatant lie. You cannot give someone the wrong one- it's either a sale or a refund. He was purposely trying to charge our friend twice, because he figured we wouldn't catch it and he knew he'd never see us again. Well, congratulations- your unethical actions not only cost you our future business, it cost you a bad review as well. Well played, sir, well played. read more