Convivium reccomendations

veets · April 2008

OK I realize I was trying to be toooo kind and diplomatic. I ditto the last few comments that say more directly what I hinted at. I am thinking that wouldn't want this OP in my restaurant or my house.

raw · April 2008

Testiculon wrote: Well, it is finally time for me to fill everyone in on my total Convivium experience. It has taken this long because our original visit in March was marred by piss poor customer service (as mentioned above) so much so that we did not dine there that evening. We spoke to the owners a few days later and they promised to make it up to us, so I did not post any negativity to give them chance to make things right. Well that's over now. Here's the deal:

March 15 was my wife's birthday. We wanted to go somewhere local and had always heard Convivium was an excellent choice. We were very excited (as you can tell by my original post in this thread).

I called the restaurant to make the reservation a few weeks ahead of time. I said specifically it was a special occasion and that I wanted a romantic table - we don't go out to eat very often and we try and make each time as memorable as possible. We weren't too picky on the exact time...I said 8, 8:30 or 9 - whatever was best for them. They set the reservation at 9pm on that Saturday night.

We arranged for a car to pick us up at our apartment (South Slope) at 8:50pm. As most car services are wont to do, they showed up a little late - we probably got into the car at 8:55 or so. I wasn't concerned - we would only be a couple of minutes late, and we had a reservation after all.

We arrived at the restaurant at what was probably about 9:05. First of all, may I say that they are not set up to have any customers wait for tables. The front door to the place plops you literally into a dining room where you are surrounded by people eating. There is no bar (well, there literally IS a bar, but it seats about 4 people with no allowance for overflow) so if there are more than a few people waiting you are put in the very uncomfortable position of standing over people while they eat, and having to constantly move out of the servers way as they delivered food and cleared tables.

There was no clear host presence at all to welcome us. After some confused milling around we found a harried server behind the bar who was not much help. We told her our name, she looked at a book, looked confused, and said the host would be right back. Fair enough.

Within a minute or two, the host did indeed show up. We gave our name and explained we had a reservation at 9:00pm. His response: "You will have to work with me. I gave your table away since you were late."

At this point I looked at my watch. It was 9:10. Now I myself have worked in many a restaurant in my day, and there is usually some kind of unofficial courtesy reservation policy that holds a reservation for a brief period if the guest is running late. I have asked some friends and most believe there should be about a 15 minute hold before the table is given away.

Since we were having this conversation at 9:10 and he had just come back from seating someone, I can only assume he decided to give our table away at around 9:05.

My response was predictable: "We had a reservation, We are not that late. I want the table that I went to the trouble of making a reservation for."

Him: "Sir, you need to work with me. We are very busy. It's a Saturday night."

I was obviously getting nowhere with him and started to lose my temper to a degree - "I don't care what F%$#ing night it is and I don't want to work with you. I want my table".

His response: "Sir, if want to use that kind of language, I'm going to have to ask you to leave." I said, "With pleasure" and off we went, fuming and stranded on 5th Avenue on a Saturday night with no birthday dinner and no reservation anywhere. We ended up at Moutarde, where we treated very nicely, although the food was mediocre at best. Kinda like a French restaurant at Epcot.

More to come.......

Dude, WTF??? You wrote, like, a book.
Damn you must be one mad motherfocker to be writing all this.

I went through a similar thing years ago in Carroll Gardens on Mother's Day. It was even worse because I foolishly waited up for an hour for an imaginary table that we had a reservation before. By the time we gave up, the only place open that would take us on Mother's Day was Angelika's Kitchen, a vegetarian restaurant in Manhattan.

Not that it's your fault, but you should take your wife out again so that she has a better birthday memory.

shishkab · April 2008

i think my opinion falls somewhere in the middle from the other responses here.

i would offer, if i am reading your story correctly, that you were indeed too aggressive and angry with the staff, and you didn't really give them the opportunity to make things right on the night of your reservation. if you truly were only ten minutes late, i think it's silly they gave up the table that quickly. coupled with the fact that you had gone thru the trouble to arrange what was supposed to be a lovely birthday dinner for your wife, i can def. see how frustrating it must have been. however, the old married hag in me (15 years hitched and counting -- i'm not shy to say it!) must tell you i think it's a shame that in your anger towards the manager for giving away the table, you left your honey in the lurch after you "stormed" outside (she may have come with you, but it was still "her" night that both you and Convivium ruined that evening. once again, that's really easy for me to say, but still...). perhaps if you had waited a few minutes before boiling over (or at least counted to ten before the cursing), the evening could have been salvaged at the establishment you wanted, no Epcot needed. but of course, we'll never know.

now, as for the $85 gift certificate, i think you are in the right. i patronize Convivium a few times a year and on an average visit there, that sum more than covers the meal. however, i spent a few minutes after reading your story thinking about what it would cost for a "special" dinner for my husband and me at Convivium. two apps, two entrees, a mid-priced bottle of wine, two desserts, and a coffee for him & a glass of vin santo for me would cost well over $100. i don't normally splurge that way on a meal by a looooooong shot, but for a special night once or twice a year i would most definitely spend a goodly sum, and i have spent that much THERE without batting the proverbial eye. so considering how slighted you felt, and considering the fact that the manager made no mention of a price cap the first time you spoke, if i were you i would be angry about that, too. the only advice i could offer you in the future would be to take advantage of the offer the owner gives you right away, not weeks later. i completely understand that no undertaking is easy when it comes to making childcare arrangements. just throwing the notion out there that they probably would have made more of an effort to please you if you were in a rush to go back.

but in the end, no matter what my two cents are, i am sorry you've come away with such a poor opinion of the place. and even if i may not agree with all you've written, i am glad you took the time to share.

raw · April 2008

veets wrote: [quote=Nepenthean]Had the steak last Thursday and it sucked big time. The first time it was so good. $74 and 60% pure fat. What was the chef thinking? The lights are low, they'll never notice?? What a disappointment.

I just reread your post... if that steak was 60% fat, you knew it sitting at the table. You should have called the waiter over after you consumed the 40% meat and pointed out what was still left on the platter. My guess if is if you had done that you would not have walked out of Convivium as a disappointed customer. I think they would have dealt with the situation in a way to have retreived it and secured your return as their customer.

Agreed, you should let your waiter know that there is a problem immediately.

Everyone is always so afraid that the waiter is going to spit on their steak if they send it back. Chances are the first damn steak you were going to eat already fell on the floor.

And if the waiter or chef do somthing to your food, they could get in big big trouble:

http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/16068957.html

Serving Steak...Stuffed With Hair (WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT)
By Jay Sorgi

Story Updated: Feb 28, 2008

Many of you have probably had stuffed turkey, stuffed chicken, stuffed peppers, but probably nothing stuffed with what one cook put in some food at a restaurant in West Bend.

Kevin Hansen went to a Texas Roadhouse on Saturday and asked for a steak.

He got one...with stuffed facial hair.

A criminal complaint says restuarant cook Ryan Kropp admitted that to West Bend Police.

Hansen told the Journal Sentinel he noticed the hair after three bites, then complained to the manager, and eventually police.

A coworker of Kropp's says in the complaint says that later on that night, Kropp took a second steak, put hair in it, and told his coworker, "these are my pubes."

Kropp's been charged with a felony count of putting a foreign object in food.

If he gets convicted, he could get three and a half years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

raw · April 2008

veets wrote: Testi I hesitate to comment because this Convivium story is your story and of course you are gonna stick by it. But... really $85 towards the meal seems like a reasonable cut. It would cover $75 of the bill for sure.

It should have been a nice round number, like $50 or $100. $85 is a weird number and makes you think too hard.

If you and your wife ordered Convivium Osteria's entree "Chuleton de buey a la parilla con patatas fritas (for two) $72" and appetizer "Surtido de tapas del pescador (for two) $26," yes, $85 would not cover your bill.

quigley · April 2008

Maybe you just should've ordered your car service for 8:40, and then none of this would have happened? (Especially since you said yourself "the car was late, as car services are wont to do.") If you know the car service is going to be a few minutes late - as we all do - why not just pad your trip with 5 minutes so you won't be late? Just sayin...

nepenthean · April 2008

veets wrote: [quote=Nepenthean]Had the steak last Thursday and it sucked big time. The first time it was so good. $74 and 60% pure fat. What was the chef thinking? The lights are low, they'll never notice?? What a disappointment.

I just reread your post... if that steak was 60% fat, you knew it sitting at the table. You should have called the waiter over after you consumed the 40% meat and pointed out what was still left on the platter. My guess if is if you had done that you would not have walked out of Convivium as a disappointed customer. I think they would have dealt with the situation in a way to have retreived it and secured your return as their customer.

Well, if you've eaten there, you are aware of how dark it can be - which I mentioned in my first post. The slices cut at our table were a bit fatty but nothing prepared us for what we took home - which we obviously could not see beforehand as it was wrapped in foil. Buried inside the cut of meat was baseball size glob of pure fat. I've had the steak before and it was great, so it's not like I don't know what I'm talking about.

raw · August 2008

Nepenthean wrote: [quote=veets][quote=Nepenthean]Had the steak last Thursday and it sucked big time. The first time it was so good. $74 and 60% pure fat. What was the chef thinking? The lights are low, they'll never notice?? What a disappointment.

I just reread your post... if that steak was 60% fat, you knew it sitting at the table. You should have called the waiter over after you consumed the 40% meat and pointed out what was still left on the platter. My guess if is if you had done that you would not have walked out of Convivium as a disappointed customer. I think they would have dealt with the situation in a way to have retreived it and secured your return as their customer.

Well, if you've eaten there, you are aware of how dark it can be - which I mentioned in my first post. The slices cut at our table were a bit fatty but nothing prepared us for what we took home - which we obviously could not see beforehand as it was wrapped in foil. Buried inside the cut of meat was baseball size glob of pure fat. I've had the steak before and it was great, so it's not like I don't know what I'm talking about.

That is gross. A big ball of fat. Gross.

veets · August 2008

Coincidence... we (3 people) ate at Convivium this evening and ordered the steak. We had the seafood apetizer first and that was terrific. We did not finish the whole steak so they made a nice aluminum foil package complete with handle to brin the steak home. What we ate in the restaurant had little fat. I will let you know after lunch on Sat. if the remainder is fatty or wonderful, as was the carved part of steak we ate there tonight.

I can tell you now that service was lovely even though the place was at capacity. We had no reservation and were told it was a 20 minute wait. It was more like 35 minutes but we were hanging in front and the rain had stopped so we didn't care. Someone came out and apologized that the wait was longer than he had told us and when we sat down an appetizer of codfish and salad was brought to the table immediately with an apology that the wait was longer than they had originally projected.

Each to their own in reviewing restaurants... but Convivium is still on my A list..........might turn out to be Aminus if the left-over steak turns out to be fatty.

pastoralia · August 2008

OP should have left and gone a block down to Canaille and his evening would have been saved.

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