Where's Our Waiter
 

My husband and I aren't permanent residents of the Villages yet but we try to spend at least one weekend a month at our home in Tamarind Grove. Just this past weekend, my daughter flew in from Boston and my oldest daughter rode with me from Alabama to spend a few days together. They both thought TV was great and loved our house and our neighbors. On Saturday night we decided to have drinks and appetizers at some of the restaurants in LSL. We started at RJ Gators (which was great) and then proceeded to City Fire. The hostess seated us outside at a table which had just been wiped down. We sat there for about 15 minutes before a waiter carrying a spray bottle of whatever and a rag and asked us if we need out table cleaned. I told him no and told him we were ready to order. We decided to get a nice bottle of Pinot Noir and some mussels. He asked my daughters for ID (one is 25, the other 30) and told my oldest that she looked really good for 30. He took off and never returned. We sat there for about 20 minutes but no one came back to our table. At this point I asked another waitress passing by where this guy was and she said she would look for him. After waiting another 20 minutes, we got up and left. Sorry for the long rant but I was so excited about trying City Fire because I had heard so many good things about it. I was just wondering if anyone on TOTV has had that type of bad service and if I should go back to try it again.

manager need to be aware

Never a problem
 

I've never experienced a problem at City Fire. We have only been there about 4 or 5 times. I will also add that I don't like to eat late and have never arrived after 7pm. I know their music starts at 7 so my guess is the crowds come later. Maybe they need to hire a few more for the later hours. By the way, they are also opening in Brownwood.

I know the owner of City Fire does not keep servers who are not good on his staff. If he has complaints about the servers from various customers, the servers are terminated.

He is a very experienced restaurant owner and has a booming business. He was given the choice of a location at Brownwood and is looking forward to doing a good business at that location also.

Thanks for all the comments. We will probably give City Fire another shot when we don't have guests with us. I'm very patient and when not on a time schedule, can wait for service (we waited 2 hours for the newest Harry Potter attraction at Islands of Adventure).

Service after 7 has always been iffy for me...depends on the entertainment. It appears that there are just not enough servers working to handle the crowd. It usually doesn't bother me that much though. I'm there for the entertainment and am just as happy to have the evening entertainment for the cost of a draught!

Wait until October...then wait and wait and wait

For mediocre food and high prices

What was the managers response when told about the poor service?

Go back any time and ask for Scott. He will want to know who and why you got bad service.

Skip

I didn't talk to the manager, which in hind sight would have been the best thing to do in this situation. After waiting 40 minutes, I really didn't want to wait another 20 minutes to talk to anyone else. Like I wrote in my second post, if I had been by myself or with my husband, I would have waited patiently. When you're entertaining family, time is a little more important as I wanted to show them all that is offered at TV.

The best thing for sure rather than come on TOTV with the complaint. Not sure how it can be fixed if the management isn't aware.

Hi Stuckinparadise,
I don't blame you for not waiting to speak to the manager that night, when you were anxious to get on with entertaining your guests. It's not to late though, to let the manager know now about your experience. Sometimes a manager won't care-- in which case the restaurant will probably eventually fail. Often though, the manager appreciates diplomatically given feedback of a problem; and the manager will look to solve any recurring problems brought to his/her attention.

If you do decide to call him to let him know, please let us know how he response.

Waiters always get scarce when it comes time to get the bill. I have found that on their last check on the service or for drinks to ask them for the check or it can be a long wait.

It does not matter what restaurant.

Z