Hawthorne Lane - No!!!!
Dec 23rd, 1998, 11:39 AM
#1
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Hawthorne Lane - No!!!!
BEWARE - this is a very expensive restaurant with prices through the roof, food that's okay but not special, and service staff still in job training (from what we saw and experienced). Since it was almost $90 per person, did we really need to bear the extra expense of mounting a search party to locate our waiter? To be seated in the bar area, squeezed together with 100 others, with no heat, no view, no ambiance. And noisy. Even though we had a 7:15 p.m. reservation, they'd already run out of the duck. The substitutes were not great. Well, after we paid the full bill, we did inform the manager that we intended to talk once we got home, and that's what we've done. I wrote to Zagat's this morning as well. A friend from Paris (who knows food) once told me that we must always complain, and do so repeatedly, or the standards in restaurants will go even lower. This particular restaurant has been called the number one place in SF, and they have so much business they just don't have to care. But things change, always. One day they'll stop reading their reviews and get their focus back on their customers and their product. Until then, BEWARE of Hawthorne Lane at 22 Hawthorne Street in San Fransisco (no matter what the food critics and guidebooks say).
Dec 27th, 1998, 07:34 PM
#2
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Good for you, Joseph! Tho I've never heard of Hawthorne Lane...we've had your EXACT experience in other well regarded (a regard well misplaced, i must say) restaurants in N'awlins and Chicago, among others. Good for squawking and spreading the word. And I'm going to adopt your Parisian friend's advice - it makes sense.
Jan 1st, 1999, 06:34 PM
#6
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Good for you, letting folks know about your experience. When I read your story it painfully reminded me of a horrendous experience while in Orlando, Fla.--We had asked what was a good medium priced steak house and several had recommended Barney's Steakhouse. We went, and had a good dinner, but then the nightmare began. When the young and obviously inexperienced server came back to our table to collect payment for the bill, we handed her our American Express card. She was gone an interminably long time, and kept sailing by our table except to look down all over the floor.
We asked where the slip was to sign, and she came back with a flashlight and informed us she must have misplaced my card. I told her she better hurry up and find it because I was leaving the next day on a business trip. She came back a short time later and confessed she did not know what to do, but still had not located it--we demanded to see the manager on duty. By this time my voice is getting loud, and I'm losing my patience. Another period of time went by in which I was tempted to, and should have, just walked out, but being an honest and fair person, decided to wait to complain to the manager. Needless to say, I have no idea what the petrified server actually told the manager, but when she came over to our table she treated us like criminals--saying someone better decide who was going to pay for the bill or she would call the police. I told her to go right ahead as I was not about to give her my one remaining card for them to lose that too--well, we never saw our server again that evening--someone else came out to finish the tables. The police came and told us we had to pay the bill somehow before we left the restaurant or we would be arrested. Believe it or not, I had my aunt and uncle visiting from London with me, and they were quite upset and totally unbelieving of what was happening. So I gave them my other card, the bill was paid, and we were then free to go. I vowed to pursue this. The next morning about 7am I got a call from someone at the restaurant claiming they worked there and had found my card while cleaning up--I could come by that morning and pick it up. When I came by the restaurant, the on-site management claimed they knew nothing about that phone call, when I demanded to speak with the restaurant owner they said he was in Japan on business, and to leave the premises. So obviously, they were not going to accept any responsibility at all for the night before's incident and were just covering up. I went home, promptly cancelled the card, and also called the other card to refuse to pay the charge on it. I never heard from anyone at the restaurant again--how is that for a bad restaurant experience????? So I will try to spread the word for as long as I can that any tourists to the Orlando area need to completely avoid Barney's Steakhouse.
We asked where the slip was to sign, and she came back with a flashlight and informed us she must have misplaced my card. I told her she better hurry up and find it because I was leaving the next day on a business trip. She came back a short time later and confessed she did not know what to do, but still had not located it--we demanded to see the manager on duty. By this time my voice is getting loud, and I'm losing my patience. Another period of time went by in which I was tempted to, and should have, just walked out, but being an honest and fair person, decided to wait to complain to the manager. Needless to say, I have no idea what the petrified server actually told the manager, but when she came over to our table she treated us like criminals--saying someone better decide who was going to pay for the bill or she would call the police. I told her to go right ahead as I was not about to give her my one remaining card for them to lose that too--well, we never saw our server again that evening--someone else came out to finish the tables. The police came and told us we had to pay the bill somehow before we left the restaurant or we would be arrested. Believe it or not, I had my aunt and uncle visiting from London with me, and they were quite upset and totally unbelieving of what was happening. So I gave them my other card, the bill was paid, and we were then free to go. I vowed to pursue this. The next morning about 7am I got a call from someone at the restaurant claiming they worked there and had found my card while cleaning up--I could come by that morning and pick it up. When I came by the restaurant, the on-site management claimed they knew nothing about that phone call, when I demanded to speak with the restaurant owner they said he was in Japan on business, and to leave the premises. So obviously, they were not going to accept any responsibility at all for the night before's incident and were just covering up. I went home, promptly cancelled the card, and also called the other card to refuse to pay the charge on it. I never heard from anyone at the restaurant again--how is that for a bad restaurant experience????? So I will try to spread the word for as long as I can that any tourists to the Orlando area need to completely avoid Barney's Steakhouse.
Jan 2nd, 1999, 12:50 PM
#8
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Well, I will put my two cents in!
We had a terrific experience there in September of '98....only spent $148 for the two of us on a full, THREE course meal, wine AND two cocktails each! (yes we were very indulgent that night ...kids at home with grandparents while we celebrated our 18th anniversary!) Excellent service...even had waiters stop and chat over the "railing" (we ate by the food prep. area). Each item that we ate, right down to the bread selection was outstanding.
Have recommended this restaurant to our various friends from the east coast...some of whom are true gourmands. NO ONE has had anything but praise for this establishment. We have lived all over the US and eaten in many wonderful restaurants. Hawthorne Lane is one of our very favorites!
The decor also gets my vote. Wonderful ambience. The bar looked really neat too.
I think that Joe may have been there at an "off" time. Maybe during the power shortage that we had a few weeks back?
Hope others make more positive comments.
We had a terrific experience there in September of '98....only spent $148 for the two of us on a full, THREE course meal, wine AND two cocktails each! (yes we were very indulgent that night ...kids at home with grandparents while we celebrated our 18th anniversary!) Excellent service...even had waiters stop and chat over the "railing" (we ate by the food prep. area). Each item that we ate, right down to the bread selection was outstanding.
Have recommended this restaurant to our various friends from the east coast...some of whom are true gourmands. NO ONE has had anything but praise for this establishment. We have lived all over the US and eaten in many wonderful restaurants. Hawthorne Lane is one of our very favorites!
The decor also gets my vote. Wonderful ambience. The bar looked really neat too.
I think that Joe may have been there at an "off" time. Maybe during the power shortage that we had a few weeks back?
Hope others make more positive comments.
Jan 6th, 1999, 09:58 AM
#9
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Reply to Harald and to Ruth: Thanks for taking time to reply and relate your experiences at Hawthorne Lane, and I'm happy your experience was a good one. What surprised me the most perhaps, was that the husband and wife team running this place had been at Postrio, and then departed to start HL. They are supposedly first rate (the restaurant reviews at their web site were carefully selected). Postrio had also started downhill per all reviewers in SF and elsewhere. If you look at HL's eb site, they tout their daily meeting to discuss all aspects of their service and food. They have the right idea, but just haven't yet consistently brought it off. Not to argue the point too much, but in contrast to Masa, La Folie and others in that class, Hawthorne Lane is out of its league. The Zagat's reviews give a mixed picture of this place as well. One final point: at those prices, and at that hype level, HL simply cannot afford to have an off night. Great restaurants are able to carry it off continually, and then eventually fail. But they do attain an exceedingly high level for a time. A fair question is whether Hawthorne Lane can possibly ever reach that level. Until they do, Patricia Undermann and other SF reviewers need to be a bit more restrained and realistic in their praise.
