I went to Mr Miyagi the other night for what would be at least my 10 visit now. I usually rave about the experience but this was by far the worst customer service I have ever encountered and I will not be going back.
We...had made a booking a week prior online for 5 people. When we arrived, we sat at the table which was set for 5 but had an extra space for a 6th person as I had noted many times before. Shortly after, our friend arrived to temporarily sit with us. At this point, the host came over and told our guest the booking was only for 5. We quickly explained that she is only staying for a short while and would not be eating a single thing due to religious reasons. She is an observant Jew and cannot eat anything not prepared in a certain way. The conversation quickly become tense when other staff interjected and harshly forbid our friend from staying in the restaurant. They said that if she is to sit then we need to move to the booth table which is for 6+ people. However this comes with a $90 set menu which has to be paid by all 6 guests and all of these are booked out. Again we explained that she CANNOT eat a single thing. She is just there to be included in a celebratory dinner for one of the guests. She shouldn’t be excluded from the event because of her religion. We emphasised that she will only be there for a short while and then will happily leave. Instead of being understanding or respectful, we were told that we are trying to cheat the system and steal money from the restaurant. We were yelled at and made to feel terrible. The money comments were particularly disgusting and borderline anti Semitic. This carried on for some time with staff going back and forth trying to decide what to do. One waiter particularly was so aggressive and rude. He wouldn’t relent and told us how unfair this is to the the restaurant and that we are not special so why should we be treated differently than everyone else. Throughout this whole ordeal, we apologised over and over again and said we honestly thought we were doing the right thing. We knew only 5 people were eating so that’s what we booked for. We weren’t going to book for 6 people and then be forced into doing the chef set menu at $90 a person AND then our friend would have to pay $90 to simply sit on a chair and not eat ANYTHING!!!!
Although incredibly expensive, because of how embarrassed we felt, we said we will pay the $90 but please can she not be forced to pay. If she is, she will obviously leave and that’s so humiliating and degrading for her. After much negotiation, they bugrugently agreed.
Now, not only did that transpire but immediately as dessert was placed on the table, the same aggressive waiter informed us that we had now overstayed our 1.5 hour sitting and should be charged an extra fee for this. However, we did the set menu and we literally still had food coming. It is not our fault that the food didn’t come out in time and dessert was brought out a long time after we had finished everything else. That’s the responsibility of the restaurant and definitely should not be attributed to the customers. The waiter was so rude and essentially told us to eat our dessert immediately and get out.
As a group, we were incredibly upset by this experience. We were completely put off our food and left nearly $100s out of pocket each.More