So, I went out with a couple of friends tonight and we wound up at Carino’s. It’s probably my favorite restaurant as the food is always good, the service is great, prices not too bad, and the atmosphere is welcoming and relaxing.

Tonight was the exception. While the atmosphere was still great, and the food was (as always) awesome, the service left a lot to be desired. It took our waitress about fifteen minutes to come and take our drink orders after we’d been sat and about ten minutes to bring them to us then she wandered off for a few more minutes before returning to finally take our orders. It must have been about 10-15 minutes later that she brought us the bread that is supposed to have been set out for us from the get go. We then had to inform her that we had no silverware or napkins, again, something else that should have been set out as soon as we were seated. We didn’t see our utensils and napkins until our first course was served later.

But wait, it gets better.

Our dishes were delivered to us in a haphazard way, with soup sloshing onto the table and a rapid fire “enjoyyourdinnerladies” and she was gone in a flash. No offer of Parmesan cheese on my salad, no apology for the spilled soup, and no offer for refills on our drinks. She never checked back on us either. When we wanted more bread or refills we had to flag her down, although, for the most part it was easier getting one of the other servers passing by to assist us.

Then came our main course, again, plates tossed haphazardly, rapid-fire comments we honestly had to pause and think on in order to decipher. And, if we didn’t respond quickly she started actually tapping her foot at us. My goodness! We must have been so rude and inconsiderate, we actually expected our waitress to wait on us. Shame on us! And again, no offer for refills, just drop off the plates, grate Parmesan on the dishes requested, and mumbling a response to us as she’s already walking away. What. The. Fuck?

But she certainly was helpful and friendly to this group of guys that looked like they came from some sort of special event or party. One in particular, curly blond hair, crisp white shirt, tuxedo vest, and black slacks. Honestly it was kind of disturbing seeing a waitress hang all over a guy like a fangirl.

And the perfect way to end the evening, a twenty dollar price difference added to our bill. My tab was $44.06, I handed over my card and when she came back my receipt read $69.48. Of course, it took about five minutes to get her back to our table because she dropped off the receipts with a “okaythankyouforcomingladies! goodnightandbyebye” with half of it being said as she’s already walking away. After calling her back I had to listen to her complain about how I was reading the receipt wrong and then finally a “oh, hmm wonder what I did wrong”. She eventually went back and voided the previous transaction and ran it for the right amount, at least that’s what she said anyway. The girl never brought me a voided receipt to show that it was voided or that I was refunded the difference and when I asked for it I was told “well you should have told me you wanted one, it’s too late now”.

You can bet I’ll be checking my account online and if it’s not correct they will be hearing from me.

Needless to say I didn’t give her a tip.

The food was good though, I had the Spicy Romano Chicken and was very pleased with it. But the service was just horrid. If I was a first-time customer and that was the treatment I’d gotten I can guarantee you I wouldn’t be going back. As it is, I probably won’t be going back any time soon.

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