Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Potentially disastrous evening thwarted...

...thanks to Sansei Kihei.

Two friends and I had reservations at Capische? (Why would a restaurant put a question mark at the end of its name??) We'd been looking forward to dinner there all week. I was leaving the next day for NYC. They showed us to a table jammed in a corner next to a large party. Unacceptable. After about ten minutes - maybe more - they turned a diagonal two-top 90 degrees, grabbed another chair and made it a three-top. I don't think so. After another ten minutes or so - staff rolling their eyes in front of us - they said they couldn't accommodate us at a four-top 'til 8:00 a.m. - our res was 6:30 - or they'd be happy to make a res for us on another night. Buh-bye... A reservation for three means a four-top. Obviously, these folks thought the revenue from a fourth seat was worth having three very dissatisfied, LOCAL customers. I sent an e-mail note to the manager the next day. I haven't heard back. What a surprise.

We thought about going to Tommy Bahama - I LOVE their food - and then looked at each other and said in unison - SANSEI. I called, apologized for being last minute (as I often am) and we were happily accommodated (in the interest of full disclosure, yes, Sansei is a PR client but I've seen them do the same for others). Everything was perfect, including the cocktails and the service. Here's Al enjoying the fois gras nigiri ordered JUST for him...





1 comment:

  1. Well, it doesn't surprise me that someone who would name a restaurant "Capische?" would treat customers poorly. The question mark at the end is for "Understand?" which is what this means in Sopranos-style Italian. Real Italian is "capisce," pronounced as three syllables, not two. Glad you were rescued by Sansei!

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