TL;DR: The restaurant somehow forgot my bday reservation I made and PAID FOR nearly a month in…read moreadvance. Onsite staff scrambled to seat our party of 11. Food was overall bad and soda was completely flat. I reached out to request a refund and they fucked up the amount refunded, while still charging me 22% gratuity LOL.
This experience was a stain on an otherwise incredibly perfect weekend celebration in Tahoe. I had my 30th birthday dinner here and it was a terrible experience-- although NO fault of our direct waitstaff. They tried their best in a chaotic situation... IDK where the communication dropoff occurred.
I submitted a request on Evo Hotel's contact form 3 weeks in advance to request a large party reservation and got in contact with their events coordinator, Alexis. While the restaurant doesn't typically accept reservations, she offered an event hosting fee to confirm our large party of (originally) 12. I agreed to the charge (BTW, which was $990.23 after taxes and service charges, and required $750 food/bev minimum). This included 22% gratuity. Signed a contract. Soooo I basically paid almost a grand in advance. For a table that's not even in a private room! I just wanted the peace of mind :-/
A day prior, I let Alexis know that my party size had changed to 11, and she responded that it had been updated. OK COOL, CONFIRMED RIGHT???? LMAO
The night of, the staff were completely confused why our big ass group was saying we had a reservation because, again, THEY DON'T TAKE RESERVATIONS! Only when I mentioned ALEXIS and showed the contract on my phone, they basically scrambled to get us seated ASAP. Fortunately there was space, but the restaurant was nearly full... Imagine if I paid $1k to wait outside for an hour or something???
Waitstaff were very flustered and apologetic, and throughout our meal I had to reexplain the situation to different people, who each seemed even more confused than the last.
Frankly, I would've considered another restaurant when we found out the reservation wasn't honored but 1.) I already paid and 2.) where tf am I going to seat 11 people on short notice who are hungry after a day of hiking and climbing?!
The food was just... Not good. Some dishes were passable, but:
- Soda was totally flat. Like you left it out on the porch in a hot day.
- Guacamole was unseasoned... Basically CUBED avocado with no salt. It was so egregious this became a running joke in our group
- Fried rice was SO salty and unpleasant
- Chicken was undercooked in the salad...
- Fries came out cold.
- Poke was bland. Both fish and rice basically had no flavor
The only thing that was good was probably the Seafood Pan Roast and cocktails.
My friends got through the meal to kindly avoid worrying me on my 30th birthday, knowing I had been stressing about planning this weekend for the past three months... We only sent back the guacamole and soda, but SO much food was left on the table. Nobody took takeout boxes back or even considered getting dessert.
On top of all this mess, they didn't even acknowledge that it was my birthday even after finding the contract LOL.
The staff finally decided that the check was considered covered by my $990.23, so no addtl card was ran. Good thing we asked for the itemized total before we left, because it was actually $483 (before tip/tax). So WAAAAY below the food/beverage minimum. In good faith I fully expected us to exceed the minimum because we're all huge foodies! The night before, a group of 5 of us literally spent $400~ at Sylva...
I reached out to Alexis after my trip and requested a refund. While apologetic, she only waived the $750 minimum, 3 items and the soda, and still charged me for 22% gratuity. PLEASE BE SO SERIOUS LMFAO. I'd still tip 15% for the hardworking waitstaff-- or whatever the typical restaurant large party auto-gratuity is-- but 22% for all this mess????? And then as if it couldn't be a bigger mess, her email wrote the refund was $462.32, but the new attached invoice listed $426.32. Girl. To her credit she also sent a $50 gift card but unfortunately there's no way I'm coming back. This is probably the most negative dining experience I've had in a long time... I was genuinely shocked.
Sad bc my bf and I stayed at Evo in Utah and had a great experience, and hyped it up to our friends (they have a rock climbing wall and a skate park in that location!!!), so this was a big disappointment from start to finish. And you did it at my 30th bday dinner :-(