My daughter and I had been planning a special trip to Charleston to celebrate her 30th Birthday for many weeks and wanted to begin the celebration with dinner at the Peninsula Grill. We were staying at the attached lovely hotel, The Planters Inn, and were...very excited for a special dinner. We had carefully made our dinner reservation weeks ahead of our visit... and I even made a follow-up call to ensure that we were all set.
We arrived for dinner at 7:00pm on April 1st- dressed up and ready to enjoy. The Maitre De station is in the bar area - and was bustling with customers. Upon giving our name and reservation, the Maitre De in a very condescending manner indicated he couldn’t find a reservation in our name... he then asked if there could be another phone or name it could be under and continued to indicate we weren’t on the evening’s list. After sharing that we had received 2 confirmations of our reservation, he very reluctantly seated us... getting our evening off to an embarrassing and uncomfortable start. Basically, we were made to feel that we had taken a spot not meant for us... not a good feeling!
Dinner continued with an odd feeling that regardless of what we ordered, we were being upsold on ordering more sides, more expensive entrees, etc. My daughter and I have dined at many fine restaurants and both commented that we had never experienced that type of pressure from the waitstaff. We remained very pleasant, ordered some items we didn’t even want and tried to enjoy our evening. Certainly the coconut cake was fabulous and we appreciated the candle and festive happy birthday drizzle on the plate.
But as we reflected on our evening, we felt remiss not sharing our experience. If you want to enjoy a special meal.... and not be demeaned or pressured....go to another fine restaurant in Charleston-and get a piece of coconut cake to go!More
