If there’s one thing to learn from doing restaurant reviews, it’s that not all units have the same vibe. This is what we learned when my husband and I went to Javier’s Mexican restaurant on the Irvine Spectrum in Irvine, CA.
There is another very fine Javier’s in Laguna Beach. No one seems to care how difficult they have to find a place to park when enjoying a night there. But the Irvine Spectrum’s brother doesn’t seem to be cut “in the same way.”
My parents suggested that we all go to the Spectrum to celebrate our anniversary. They based this on their enjoyment of the food, service, and atmosphere at Laguna Beach. Having been there on many occasions, they thought this new location would be a good place to go. We all love Mexican food and the location was central.
Obviously, being busy is not the same as knowing how to treat your guests. Being a large group (10), we knew we would have to wait. The hostess was not pleasant when we asked for an “estimate”. She complained that it should be about 30 minutes. When they were 45, my husband came over to ask if we could expect to be seated shortly. A different hostess almost bit off his head. Finally, after an hour, we sat down.
It did not improve. The host literally threw the menus at us all. It took 10 minutes before someone recognized our existence. My parents couldn’t believe how horrible the service was; They said that if they had known it was “a 180” from the older restaurant, they would never have suggested it.
We had to almost physically grab someone to take our order. Our dinners were served loudly in front of us, some weren’t even close to being warm. To correct this, my teenage nephew went to the host’s desk and asked if someone could help us. They were actually rude for having to heat the food.
No one came to apologize, to ask us if we needed anything or how I was doing once the cold dishes came back.
The food was mediocre and greasy. At no point did they give us refills on our waters or coffee. None of the myriad waiters who threw food at us asked if we wanted dessert. Then all of a sudden we get some attention! The staff churned our plates (finished or not), baskets of chips and silverware to the table and one of the staff handed us the bill. He had the first smile of the night. I guess she thought it would help her tip.
The advice was “bring the manager”. We explained how we had been treated and why we did not tip. He said curtly “fine” and left. Maybe it was that we didn’t order alcohol. We thought maybe this was a really bad night.
However, it was not. Our son and his girlfriend tried again a month later. Same deal. Our daughter and her husband tried it a few nights ago; They said they had never had such horrible service or less appetizing food.
Why can you still pack in the crowd? Perhaps drinking at the bar for an hour before sitting down makes bad service and unpleasant food less noticeable.