Poste Moderne Brasserie Review

Editors Note: When I left the Poste Restaurant, there were no managers in sight to discuss my experience. I was told by the hotel front desk that no comment cards were available and that I needed to go online if I wanted to comment. I got the names and email addresses of two restaurant managers, Thomas Hanson & William Silcot, from the website. This email was sent to both of them and I received no reply so I was compelled to post it here (backdated to the date of the original email.)

Poste Managers,

I feel obliged to tell you about our experience at the Poste on Saturday for lunch. While the food was fantastic, obtaining it (especially what we ordered) was a terrible experience. The waitress took the order and then came back to the table because she forgot the requested temperature for the steak. We saw the food being prepared and two men started to carry it in our direction. They stopped and took it back to the counter. I thought perhaps something was missing or wrong, but I had a clear view of the counter and about five minutes later, the same food was delivered to the table.

My friend ordered Truffle Frites with her steak, but obtained Pomme Frites. They promptly corrected this issue, but neither the waitress nor the people assisting her noticed that I had not received my food. Oddly enough, at a table of only four people, they apparently thought I wasn't interested in eating. After I brought it to the attention of the hostess (who brought the corrected frites) the kitchen scrambled to get my order. From the looks of the staff and the review of the order on the terminal, it was fairly clear that the waitress had not entered the order in the first place. When my Grilled Chicken Cobb salad was delivered, I was shocked to find it did not include any chicken. I was not going to wait for this to be corrected and ate it without. The salad was delicious; it wasn't what I ordered. I asked the waitress to only charge me for a side salad since that is what it appeared I had received.

Other than water, our waitress didn't ask for another drink order until all four of us had bone dry glasses. With no offer of coffee or dessert after dining, the check was quickly placed on our table. I guess she thought we were done so we went up the street for coffee.

The waitress made half hearted apologies with every error along the way, but made excuses and blamed everything on the kitchen. I would have respected her more if she admitted her part in the errors. We are all human and humans make mistakes. I was also surprised there was no apology by a manager with such a large number of issues in a single dining experience. This is not the type of service I would expect at what I perceived was a higher level of dining establishment.

Your advertising talks about your competent and capable chef. Unless you also hire competent and capable staff to support him, your restaurant will not be ready for prime time. I'm disappointed we selected the Poste restaurant to entertain out of town guests.