We Walked Out of Tuscan Grille - Silhouette

[patty1955]

On our last cruise, our lunch took over 45 minutes to get to us in the Bistro on Five. As usual it was almost empty so there really was no excuse. When we finally got our food, we told the waiter that the long wait was inexcusable. Within 2 minutes, another man (the manager?) came out, apologized and comped the meal for us. We were impressed by how they handled it. If we had been paying what Tuscan charges, we might not have been so pleased.

[need2cruisesoon]

You all have made valid points regarding my experience with the Tuscan Grille. I didn't mind the wait or the length of the meal it was just we were abandoned after the salads were delivered to our table. For a long while I never did see our waiter or actually any wait staff. Very weird as if everybody went on a long break at the same time.

 

I understand that things happen but if the kitchen messed up or if there were other problems they were never communicated to us. It would have been much better if someone had come over and explained that our meals were messed up or the kitchen was having a melt down and that a bottle of wine would be sent over to apologize for the delay. But to no avail, no explanation from anybody. Actually I never did receive a valid reason as to why our meals were not delivered.

 

Of course this was another let down from other issues from that happened during the cruise with embarkation and tendering which I won't dwell on. But needless to say the Captain and the CD in my opinion had let many of the passengers down without reason or communicating the facts at the time.

Edited August 6, 2015 by need2cruisesoon

[Beanb41]

Two points

1. Great on the OP for making a loud point about crap service. If one was ashore one just wouldnt go back but that's a little difficult on board ship

2. This thread is a great advertisement for doing away with compulsory gratuities because it is apparent that this crew didn't deserve them

[CathyCruises]

Two points

1. Great on the OP for making a loud point about crap service. If one was ashore one just wouldnt go back but that's a little difficult on board ship

2. This thread is a great advertisement for doing away with compulsory gratuities because it is apparent that this crew didn't deserve them

Compulsory gratuities do not go to waiters in the specialty restaurants. Don't use this example as cause to stiff your steward, MDR waiters, etc.

[Beanb41]

Compulsory gratuities do not go to waiters in the specialty restaurants. Don't use this example as cause to stiff your steward, MDR waiters, etc.

 

Sorry but there is an 18% compulsory gratuity in the prices to go to specialty restaurants.

[Adidas4fun]

Ah yes it was clearly the waiters fault and they should be financially penalised.

[jelayne]

We have done Tuscan 3 times, Quisine twice, Murano and Ocean Liners once each.

 

The service in Murano was was so bad that without us complaining the maitre D charged us only for the wine. Service in Ocean Liners was similar to what the OP experienced and we also walked out. In Quisine we had one great experience and one with very slow service and food delivered cold. Again apologies and the cost discounted by the Maitre D.

 

All three times in Tuscan the food has been good and the service acceptable, but not any better than service in the MDR.

 

At this point we are not planning to book any speciality restaurants on up coming cruises.

[onespots]

Hello

 

Reference Tuscan Grill aboard the Celebrity Silhouette:

 

I applaud you & your group for walking out of the Grill for all of the reasons you have stated. Further you made a very strong statement to the waiters, chef, & management about how you were treated during this alleged dinning experience. The fact that you did not believe their answers & accept additional compensations for their poor service, speaks very loudly. Celebrity like many mass market cruise lines, thinks they can always buy-off the customer with some type of compensation. ( so happy you stood your ground )

 

One can not dine on excuses, with the costs of speciality restaurants, we the consumer expect a better experience & that's why we chose them in the first place.

 

Personally, I believe corporate could care less about anyone's complaint & likely would only be quoted policy, if you got an answer at all. In your case the staff got the message immediately...

 

Please understand we have been very loyal to Celebrity over the years as well. We have enjoyed all of our cruises. However I think with all the changes going on within Celebrity & the bottom line becoming more & more important, ( we the consumers have suffered with a product that is not comparable to the past ) Today we all have many choices, I 'm not sure Celebrity cares about any of their past customers. We all are now forced to consider other alternatives to ensure a great experience while cruising.

 

Again, I think you made a stellar decision & stuck to your principles.

 

Best Regards, John

[julia]

OP:

 

While I agree that your situation merited action, I would have (perhaps) been a bit more vocal earlier on, and thus avoided the walk out. 20 minutes to get a menu?? That is unacceptable! Bread, appetizers, and salad courses should flow smoothly, with a casual break before the entree. A fine meal often DOES take two hours, but, with attention from the staff, (and nice wines), it rarely seems like two hours. Your situation was NOT acceptable. If the kitchen was indeed "overwhelmed", then any decent wait staff should let you know that (with sincere apologies). Did they not know your party was sitting there, waiting for entrees?? :eek:

[wwcruisers]

 

One can not dine on excuses,

 

 

 

 

John -- I love that line! May I please borrow it? :cool:

[sblair]

I completely agree with how the OP handled it. By not returning hopefully the staff and management learned a lesson. Sometimes being pissed is a good thing.

 

Too often once a problem is "fixed" by comp'ing a meal, bottle of wine, etc then the staff and management never really learn a lesson because it was "resolved" so all is forgotten. It sounds like they are well-skilled in that aspect. By not accepting any of it or accepting the excuses it forces them to live with their failure that was un-fixable and maybe they'll work harder to not end up there again.

 

The other issue is all too often people complain at the drop of a hat to get something free out of it. By not accepting their "fix" the OP clearly established this isn't about money, but about the guest's time and experience. I often try and make it clear it is not about the money or getting something free.

 

For this same reason I also DESPISE the concept of automatic gratuities. I tend to tip very well. At least 20% most of the time and often times more. By the same token when the service is bad or what comes out of the kitchen is completely wrong (waiter knows what I ordered and how I wanted it cooked) then I will also leave a ****ty tip. (You have to do really bad before I leave a ****ty tip and by the time it gets to that then as a waiter you will know that I am pissed).

 

Automatic tipping encourages mediocre service I've found. When I am forced to tip a minimum amount then that is ALL you are going to get from me too. I also tend to be less forgiving of mistakes too because I've been told what I have to tip them.

 

Scott

[yorkyred]

Unless you are from Europe...a 2 hour wait to be served is insane.....let alone 3 hours and if you are in the food industry...especially in the US.....there is NO excuse to have more than 2 hours pass and not have serves the entree...any "thing that happens" is simply poor execution or prep on the part of the restaurant

 

The other poster was stating 2/3 hours for the entire meal. Certainly in the UK any meal in a top restaurant would last at least 2 hours.

[morbihan]

Well, I am in Europe and I wouldn't have hung around. A table of six will take longer to dine than our table for two. All that chatter and wine. We just get on with it and get back outside. We usually only have something light anyway.

 

The trouble with the cruise ships is that in another ten days another group arrives. They know that they won't see the upset, moaners, difficult - all to them - people again.

 

They just couldn't care less. Hotels, shops, bars, all the service industries are missing the service now. They can get away with it so they do. It wasn't like that in MY day:cool:

[MicCanberra]

OP, I am sorry to hear that you had such a bad experience.

I have normally had excellent experiences in the Specialty restaurants but it has been a while. Friends have just recently returned from the silhouette and they thought the SRs were great but the MDR was lacking, so I suppose there are some fundamental issues happening aboard. Hopefully it was more of an off night rather than the norm.:D

[mrsgoggins]

The other poster was stating 2/3 hours for the entire meal. Certainly in the UK any meal in a top restaurant would last at least 2 hours.

 

That may well be so, but I would hope I would have at least been presented with 2 or 3 courses and probably eaten them during that 2 hours here in the UK - the point is the OP hadn't even been served the main course after more than 2 hours! He had every right to be really annoyed and I can fully understand his response, and not wanting to go back.

 

This is partly because DH and I went to lunch at a favourite Italian restaurant recently and after 90 minutes we had not been served our main course when the couple on the next table - who arrived at least 5 minutes after us - had been served, and finished 3 courses! By the time the main course came - it could have been dust on my plate - I was too inwardly upset to eat it. I should have responded like the OP (well .... maybe quieter .... ;)) and left. I had asked them (very nicely) if there was a problem when they brought out our appetiser after some delay so they did know there was an issue, but it didn't improve. It's put me off going back, despite the apologies (and comped drinks) we received.

 

My full sympathy goes to the OP even though they did later try to make amends and deserve credit for that.

[Gracie115]

I wonder if the specialty restaurants help cook for Luminae.

 

I don't know...but 14 of 16 nights recently in Luminae on Eclipse were ALL excellent.......

[Project_gal]

The other poster was stating 2/3 hours for the entire meal. Certainly in the UK any meal in a top restaurant would last at least 2 hours.

 

Yes, I really object to the restaurants that state that you only have he table for a two hour slot. In my view, that is rushing you for a dinner.

[Snit13]

Had similar experience on Infinity years ago. Food was cold when it finally arrived after about 2 hours. Not waiters fault as they came by with bread tray every 10 minutes but couldn't get food from kitchen. A major kitchen problem. The next morning I made an appointment with Hotel Director to discuss the problem the prior evening. She too offered a comp dinners but we declined. She sent wine and chocolate covedred strawberries to our cabins. Since it was our 2nd Celebrity Cruise that was how I chose to handle it. We are now Elite + so we forgave and moved on. Knowing what I know now, I would have handled it immediately not next day.

[ladylemondrop]

There is a delicate balance I think, between too rushed, and too long, for a meal, I think in the speciality restaurants also, they want you to feel you have had value for your money, and maybe translate that to a long period of time, but to wait over an hour for food between courses would be too much for me, at some point, the waiting kills the mood. Especially if I get hungry/HANGRY! :D

[chamima]

You all have made valid points regarding my experience with the Tuscan Grille. I didn't mind the wait or the length of the meal it was just we were abandoned after the salads were delivered to our table. For a long while I never did see our waiter or actually any wait staff. Very weird as if everybody went on a long break at the same time.

 

I understand that things happen but if the kitchen messed up or if there were other problems they were never communicated to us. It would have been much better if someone had come over and explained that our meals were messed up or the kitchen was having a melt down and that a bottle of wine would be sent over to apologize for the delay. But to no avail, no explanation from anybody. Actually I never did receive a valid reason as to why our meals were not delivered.

 

Of course this was another let down from other issues from that happened during the cruise with embarkation and tendering which I won't dwell on. But needless to say the Captain and the CD in my opinion had let many of the passengers down without reason or communicating the facts at the time.

 

This won't help you now but I may have an idea of what happened to your wait staff (and maybe the kitchen).

When Blu gets overwhelmed sometimes extra waitstaff seem to mysteriously appear to help things move along quicker. So I'm wondering if that's where yours were. I think Tuscan and Blu share a kitchen (or if there are two, they're at least very close to each other) so maybe some kitchen staff was also appropriated.

 

We had a VERY bad experience in Murano several years ago and I totally understand your not wanting to go back for that "free" meal. My feeling that year was that one evening of my vacation had been spoiled and that I had no desire to take a chance on that happening a second time. (It's VERY different on land when it might mean another night out of the 365 that year.)

Actually, it has saved us money as now we just eat in Blu for all of our meals and don't even bother with the "Specialty" restaurants.

[K.T.B.]

So a restaurant that admits that they did not meet their own standards and asks that the customer come back for a meal on the house should be blacklisted?

 

I fully understand if the restaurant didn't care of the OP's complaint and did not do anything to try and rectify the situation, or if the OP picked up the offer from them and had a similar experience the second round that it may be a systemic problem with a restaurant.

 

Believing that even all high end restaurants have 100% satisfaction rate is unrealistic.

 

Being apologetic is all well and good, but there are times that, no matter what the restaurant does or offers, nothing will make up for the bad experience. Once it's ruined, it's ruined. I, too, would have said no to any offer of another meal there. All I would have wanted is my money back and to get on with my vacation.

Edited August 6, 2015 by Kevin T Brown

[AnchorsAweigh2011]

I’m sorry to hear about your experience in the Tuscan Grille. We always make a point to eat in the Tuscan Grille on each of our cruises and have always had excellent dining experiences! The Tuscan Grille is our favorite speciality restaurant on Celebrity.

 

I would have given them an opportunity to make it right for you. I’m impressed with the way Celebrity tried to address your concerns on three separate occasions!

[LuAnn]

This won't help you now but I may have an idea of what happened to your wait staff (and maybe the kitchen).

When Blu gets overwhelmed sometimes extra waitstaff seem to mysteriously appear to help things move along quicker. So I'm wondering if that's where yours were. I think Tuscan and Blu share a kitchen (or if there are two, they're at least very close to each other) so maybe some kitchen staff was also appropriated.

 

We had a VERY bad experience in Murano several years ago and I totally understand your not wanting to go back for that "free" meal. My feeling that year was that one evening of my vacation had been spoiled and that I had no desire to take a chance on that happening a second time. (It's VERY different on land when it might mean another night out of the 365 that year.)

Actually, it has saved us money as now we just eat in Blu for all of our meals and don't even bother with the "Specialty" restaurants.

 

I agree it won't help what happened...but we gave up on the MDR several years years ago...and TBH...I think what X is charging for the "Specialty" restaurants is pretty over the top. We now only book AQ in order to be able to have Blu as our restaurant. We are just off the Equinox and enjoyed it so much...every breakfast and dinner (boy ...do they work hard!!) we had the same wait staff and excellent service and meals. I did have one steak that was tough...and it was replaced right away. I certainly don't blame the OP for leaving ...my DH...who is a NYC native...would have left LONG before that!!! :o Being a "So Cal girl"...I might have stayed a little longer...but HEY...that is way to long to wait for your meal!! If you are paying $100 per couple for a meal...I think the service/wait time should be much better than that, don't you??? :cool: LuAnn

[CathyCruises]

Sorry but there is an 18% compulsory gratuity in the prices to go to specialty restaurants.

 

I have no idea what you are referring to. There definitely is NOT a compulsory 18% gratuity added to specialty restaurant charges!!

[TroubleT]

Just want to add my story and my comments. And the goal is not to bad mouth Celebrity, but just note that "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark".

 

We usually go to Specialty Restaurants when we have something "special" to celebrate. We look forward to that "special" dinner/evening. And if it is ruined (for any reason) then nothing can replace it. Once we had a not so good experience at Murano. It was our 20th wedding anniversary. The cruise was booked for that reason and a special dinner was reserved at Murano. It started great. But when the waiter brought my DH lamb chops he ordered then the whole evening went south. I noticed DH was really struggling trying to cut the lamb chop. After about a minute or two I offered my help. In two more minutes our DD joined us trying to cut a piece of meat that should be a better quality since we paid $45 for this "special" meal. Five minutes later we called a waiter and politely mentioned that there was something wrong with our order because we couldn't cut it. What do you know? Instead of replacing the order he grabbed a knife and started sawing a piece of meat. Seriously? He was all red and sweaty but he was really persistent in cutting the meat. DH refused to eat his meal. The evening was ruined. To add more to that, the next day they delivered our "anniversary" cake to our stateroom. The sign on the cake said "Happy Birthday!" We talked to F&B Manager. There was a row of phone calls from the restaurant management. Free dinner was offered (which we declined), wine was sent, and "all that jazz". The bottom line is: our celebration was ruined. And even if they offered 5 free dinners we would never get back that evening again. Is it so hard to control the situation when you have just a handful of people to serve? I personally think there shouldn't be any excuse for bad/slow service in SR. Or at least if an issue does exist then the guests should be notified about the wait time or offered a different time for dinner.

 

Am I wrong?