2 hour wait for food at 3pm with only 13 customers in the entire establishment

We walked in and there were 2 tables with customers inside and 1 outside. The table outside asked for their check when the waitress came to greet us. Both tables inside had 4 customers each. There were 2 customers at the bar drinking. Our son is a type 1 diabetic and his sugar was very low, it was down to 61. We asked if we could quickly get a Coke. The waitress was polite and immediately brought it to him. About 10 minutes later she came to our table to take our order. She was the only staff member besides the cook. We ordered our drinks and food. As soon as she left the table, I took some photos of the nice view and shared them on Facebook. About 20 minutes later we received our water.

After 1.5 hours I realized no one else had gotten any food at any of the other tables and ours son's sugar was starting to get low again so I went in and asked how much longer it is going to be. We never saw the waitress between the time we received our water and the time I walked in to see how long it was going to be. She said it shouldn't be to much longer. She came out almost immediately to our table and refilled our water and apologized for the delay and explained the cook was in a bad mood. My husband asked does that mean she isn't cooking, half jokingly. She didn't respond and walked away. We were thankful for her apology but a cook being in a bad mood is not an acceptable answer for it taking 1 hour and 47 minutes for us to receive our lunch. I knew exactly how long because the photos I took were time stamped on Facebook.

We never had a staff member come off and ask if everything was ok. I posted a review on Facebook shortly after we left and got a response from the owner this morning. "The service was slow because the Tavern was packed most of the day. You could have easily waited for two hours at one of the chain restaurants downtown just to get a seat. " I responded with the same details on here and he responded with even more excuses. We were in the area for 5 days and almost every established we visited was at capacity but we never had to wait 2 hours to receive our good after we ordered it. He continued to make excuse after excuse but never once apologized for our bad experience or mentioned he would have a talk with his com about the situation.

I get it, staff is limited right now, but we received excellent service the rest of the week at every other established we visited. I am going to guess he has a hard time finding employees because he is terrible business owner. I have had my own business for 24 years and I know I will be working extra hours during my peak season. I would never leave my staff alone on a busy day during peak season. you must be responsible and take responsibility for your business knowing you are short staffed. Not only is that horrible business practice, it makes you a horrible boss. You are the owner of the establishment, it is your job to be there at 3:00 on a Saturday in your peak season.

If the owner would have come forward and apologized and explained everything in a polite way, I would be a little more understanding and not sharing our horrible experience on every review site.

For what it is worth, my husband said his fish was excellent. The chips were under cooked but nothing a little extra vinegar couldn't help. My chicken pie dough was a little undercooked but I could still eat it., and our son's meal was perfect and he said it was delicious.

Nov. 08, 2020