XO Cafe in Providence

[NewEnglandSteve]

How many things can a restaurant do to ruin my night? Let's count how many XO cafe could squeeze into 3 hrs.:

1) We arrive early for our reservation so we sit at the bar for a drink. 20 minutes after we sit down the bartender takes our order. I get my wine, but the bartender needs to stop and text message someone for 5 minutes before she could start my fiancée's martini. It finally arrives, and it sucks. She makes up for that by also over charging me for the drinks by 2.00. Nice start

2) The rest of our party arrives (my boss) and we head into the dining room. We order drinks and wait 40 minutes for the server to take our dinner order. After waiting this long the server still felt the need to make us feel like we were inconveniencing him by asking a couple of questions regarding the menu. He takes our order and then comes back a few minutes later and repeats it back to us to confirm everything.

3) Our dinner arrives and only my fiancée's order was completely wrong. 2 out of 3 ain't bad. Unfortunately, he also forgot the additional sauces and plates we asked for. At this point after waiting for him to return I had to get up and look around the restaurant for him. I understand if there is a problem when dining out it is the diners responsibility to ask someone to remedy the situation. I pulled the server aside and explained how bad everything had been up to that point. I was respectful but firm that I wanted things to improve. He apologizes profusely and proceeded to continue to not give a shit.

4) I sit back down. Everyone has everything they need so we dig in. I had the braised pork shank. It could not have been drier had it been microwaved pork shank. A complete bust. The other meals were fine. We finish up and order dessert. The server wraps up a couple of things for us to take home... which he completely forgot about until someone in the back was cleaning up and wondered aloud who's crunchy risotto had been hanging out. We already were out of our seats and had our coats on at this point.

5) We finish dessert and get the check. $235.00. Awesome. BUT they made up for it all with a hastily written card that said "Sorry for the poor service". What a complete waste of money and a waste of a night out.

[Chris Amirault]

What night was it, Steve? Was the place slammed? Not that it should matter so much. Sorry to hear it was so lousy.

[NewEnglandSteve]

Chris, it was a Friday night. It was pretty busy when we got there but practically empty in the dining room when we were leaving. It really is no excuse whether it's busy or not. All the server had to do to salvage the evening was to improve from the point I pulled him aside. I'm most pissed that even though he had the opportunity to make things right he couldn't care less. Like most people on here, I work hard to be able to go out and have a nice dinner. It's pretty aggravating to have a restaurant take your business for granted when you choose them over all the other available options.

[NewEnglandSteve]

Update:

I emailed to John Elkay, the owner of XO Steakhouse (among other restaurants) regarding my experience. Within a couple of weeks I had received notes of apology from the bartender, the waiter, the chef, the manager and John Elkay himself. I also received a 100.00 gift card with a note urging me to give them another chance.

I wish the night in question could have been salvaged but I certainly applaud JE and his staff for stepping up to make things right.

[Chris Amirault]

Glad to hear it! Once again, I'm prompted to say: why doesn't every restauranteur do this?