What Would You Do? (Restaurant Reservation Edition) I Want to Know

I won't be calling out the restaurant, just the situation. And I would LOVE to know what you would have done had this happened to you.

For a while now there's been a new fancy restaurant in town I have wanted to try with the hubby. I have a $100 gift card so we have been waiting for a moment where we could really go for it.

There have been a few attempts in the past, but this weekend the stars aligned and Tyler said, "Let's go, book a reservation for Monday night." YES! :) He had a few specific instructions, if we could not be elbow-to-elbow with the next table that would be nice, and I agreed. They had the option of booking on the patio, so I took full advantage of that and included the note about possibly not being seated SO close to the neighbors would be awesome. It's our first time and we were so excited to try it all out!

Reservation set! Such a fancy system I received a message an hour before our reservation stating, "You're due at ______ in an hour. Made enough decisions today? Try our Chef's Menu and put your dining decisions in OUR hands."

Wow! That sounds awesome, we were already planning on it! So glad we're on the same page.

We roll up, go inside and tell the lady our name and our reservation time. She smiles and proceeds to seat us inside, within elbows of the next table. I smile and ask about the reservation I had made for the patio. She hesitates, "There is a party that booked the patio." No apology or even a mention of my reservation. "So the reservation that I made for the patio is no longer good?" "It's a big party." Ah, I see. She hands us menus and walks off.

I. Am. Pissed. Obviously this party is going to bring in nice money this evening, but if you had the time to send me a generic text message about my upcoming meal, why couldn't you inform me my reservation had been changed?

Why am I still sitting here pretending that I am still impressed? Full stop, I wasn't and told the waitress we were leaving.

We ended up eating at a burger place that was awesome! Service was amazing, outdoor patio was perfection and the table seated more than an elbow's length away from us bought our drinks. So in the end, we were where we were supposed to be.

This morning I received a request for a review of my dining experience at the place we walked out on. I told them I wouldn't be mentioning them by name but let them know exactly what went down.

Look at me over here speaking my truth and getting better at it! How's it going for you?