Napa Wine Country Trip Report/ Nightmare!
Dec 1st, 2003, 03:35 PM
#1
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Napa Wine Country Trip Report/ Nightmare!
I wanted you all to hear what happened to us this weekend so that you'll think twice if you are planning to eat at the Wine Spectator Greystone Restaurant (also known as the site of the C.I.A. Culinary Institute of America).
We live in SF so we have taken friends and family to this restaurant for many special occasions over the years, but this weekend was anpother special night. We even booked a hotel room so that we could enjoy the food and wine and not have to make the long drive back to the city.
The restaurant requires your contact number and your credit card details to reserve a table, which we provided weeks before arriving. On the afternoon of our reservation, we phoned at 3:30 pm to check the time of our dinner. We were told it was 7:45.
At 7:40 we drive up to the imposing building and there are no cars. The valet parker stand is abandonned. We don't know what is happening. Surely they would have called if there had been a problem- or they would have told us when we phoned just a few hours earlier to confirm, right? All we found was a note taped to the door of the well lit entryway "power out restaurant closed" and a list of the top 20 Napa Valley restaurants with phone numbers- like we were going to get a table at 7:45 on a Saturday night of a holiday weekend!
There was NO one at all from the restaurant on duty to say they were sorry. They HAD our number, the lights were back on, and this was the only "outage' in the whole area. I phoned to ask about this and they just let the phone ring and ring, the answering service did not even have a recording- so if someone had called in to get directions, say, they would have had to drive all the way in to find an abandonned place.
But wait, there's more.
The next day a manager told me all the numbers were trapped in the computer, but he also said the electricity had been out all day- since 11am, and yet when we called at 3:30 the girl recofirmed our table and said nothing to make us at least suspect that we might have to make other plans.
The manager also said the lights had come back on at 6:30pm-- and yet from 6:30pm onwards no one ever bothered to phone any of the probably 100 or more patrons they expected that evening, which also would have allowed us to make other plans.
No, they decided to just let a restaurant full of people who had cared so much about their reservations that they booked them well in advance absolutely no notice of the situation. They thought it was ok for us to just show up-- in the rain-- to an empty,unmanned locked door.
When we told our concierge at the Villagio Inn (who was great) he was shocked that they did not phone or even post a live person at the restauarant.
Prior to this I would have listed this as one of my favorites, but unless you want a shocker of an experience like we had, I would not make a reservation here. There are many other places to eat where they treat their customers professionally. In my opinion the CIA should be ashamed. They are a teaching school- what have they taught their students about customer service in this case?
The Villagio Inn was outstanding as was the Health Club at Napa Valley (near Inn at Southbridge).
We live in SF so we have taken friends and family to this restaurant for many special occasions over the years, but this weekend was anpother special night. We even booked a hotel room so that we could enjoy the food and wine and not have to make the long drive back to the city.
The restaurant requires your contact number and your credit card details to reserve a table, which we provided weeks before arriving. On the afternoon of our reservation, we phoned at 3:30 pm to check the time of our dinner. We were told it was 7:45.
At 7:40 we drive up to the imposing building and there are no cars. The valet parker stand is abandonned. We don't know what is happening. Surely they would have called if there had been a problem- or they would have told us when we phoned just a few hours earlier to confirm, right? All we found was a note taped to the door of the well lit entryway "power out restaurant closed" and a list of the top 20 Napa Valley restaurants with phone numbers- like we were going to get a table at 7:45 on a Saturday night of a holiday weekend!
There was NO one at all from the restaurant on duty to say they were sorry. They HAD our number, the lights were back on, and this was the only "outage' in the whole area. I phoned to ask about this and they just let the phone ring and ring, the answering service did not even have a recording- so if someone had called in to get directions, say, they would have had to drive all the way in to find an abandonned place.
But wait, there's more.
The next day a manager told me all the numbers were trapped in the computer, but he also said the electricity had been out all day- since 11am, and yet when we called at 3:30 the girl recofirmed our table and said nothing to make us at least suspect that we might have to make other plans.
The manager also said the lights had come back on at 6:30pm-- and yet from 6:30pm onwards no one ever bothered to phone any of the probably 100 or more patrons they expected that evening, which also would have allowed us to make other plans.
No, they decided to just let a restaurant full of people who had cared so much about their reservations that they booked them well in advance absolutely no notice of the situation. They thought it was ok for us to just show up-- in the rain-- to an empty,unmanned locked door.
When we told our concierge at the Villagio Inn (who was great) he was shocked that they did not phone or even post a live person at the restauarant.
Prior to this I would have listed this as one of my favorites, but unless you want a shocker of an experience like we had, I would not make a reservation here. There are many other places to eat where they treat their customers professionally. In my opinion the CIA should be ashamed. They are a teaching school- what have they taught their students about customer service in this case?
The Villagio Inn was outstanding as was the Health Club at Napa Valley (near Inn at Southbridge).
Dec 1st, 2003, 03:39 PM
#2
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Wow!! I will definitely remember this! We have often thought of dining here but have chosen the many other fantastic places in the area. We stay at the Yountville Inn each year but may try the Villagio on our next trip!! I'm glad you had a nice experience at the hotel and thanks for sharing!! ***kim*** PS I hope you had some other meals that were nice!! 
Dec 1st, 2003, 04:43 PM
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Wow! That really bites! I am glad you shared this. I agree, there should have been an attempt made to rectify the situation. At least, there should have been a person there to personally apologize and give you a free dinner or a discount certificate. Why don't you print this thread, send it to them and post their response? Places should know that the Internet exists!
Dec 1st, 2003, 04:46 PM
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PHEW!!!
I thought this was from one of the FFFs the lovely Mrs Kal and I had the pleasure of meeting this weekend in Yountville!
We went up to Calistoga on Saturday and hit the St Helena Outlet shops on the way back and found them to be w/o power, too.
Bad handling by such a reputable place like the CIA. Hope you let them know your dissatisfation.
Were you at least in town to enjoy Yountville's Festival of Lights on Friday?
We had another fantastic Tgiving dinner at Hurley's in Yville and our anniv. dinner on Sat at The Martini House in St Helena was out of this world. It surpassed the other 2 anniv dinners we had there.
I thought this was from one of the FFFs the lovely Mrs Kal and I had the pleasure of meeting this weekend in Yountville!
We went up to Calistoga on Saturday and hit the St Helena Outlet shops on the way back and found them to be w/o power, too.
Bad handling by such a reputable place like the CIA. Hope you let them know your dissatisfation.
Were you at least in town to enjoy Yountville's Festival of Lights on Friday?
We had another fantastic Tgiving dinner at Hurley's in Yville and our anniv. dinner on Sat at The Martini House in St Helena was out of this world. It surpassed the other 2 anniv dinners we had there.
Dec 1st, 2003, 05:28 PM
#5
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thanks all of you for your supportive response- i am still stunned! thanks to the quick work of the night concierge (not a real title) we ate at domaine chandon- the food was tasty but the atmosphere was a little too sedate (?) formal (?) for my birthday taste, but i was happy to be sitting at any table with a tablecloth at that point.
we did see the great and damp tree lighting and someone mentioned martini's. definitely will be trying that next trip!
thank you all again for your commiseration!
we did see the great and damp tree lighting and someone mentioned martini's. definitely will be trying that next trip!
thank you all again for your commiseration!
