Sakhalin — Restaurant in Arbat District

I’ve eaten at restaurants in 36 countries around the world. My experience with Sakhalin is the worst service I have ever known.

No restaurant is perfect. Mistakes will always occur. The true test of a restaurant is how it reacts when a mistake has been made.

I’ve been a big fan of White Rabbit Family (WRF) restaurants. I don’t live in Russia but whenever I visit the country I eat at WRF restaurants & have visited 15 of their establishments. I gave the restaurant ample opportunity to correctly respond to what had happened, they utterly failed

I ate at Sakhalin on 20 Dec. I informed the waiter before ordering that I cannot eat gluten. When I placed my order he checked with the kitchen & told me that some of my choices contained gluten, I therefore selected other dishes which he advised me were gluten free (GF). I was also given GF bread which I enjoyed

When it came to ordering dessert the waiter told me that the GF options were Pavlova, Panna Cotta & Honey Cake

I was a little surprised that the Honey Cake was GF so doubled checked this with him. He said "yes it is without gluten". So I ordered the Honey Cake

A few hours after the meal I began to experience a great deal of stomach pain. I emailed the restaurant the following day to ask if the Honey Cake contained gluten. They replied quickly stating “yes, this dessert contains gluten”

I replied to the restaurant informing them that I wished to make a complaint & explained all of the above. The restaurant replied asking for my contact number so that a manager could contact me.

Over 3 weeks later on 13 January I had not received any contact from Sakhalin, so emailed again to point out that I had waited over 3 weeks & no one had contacted me.

Later that day I received a message starting:

“Good evening, my name is Daria, manager of the Sakhalin restaurant. I am very sorry that we did not respond immediately to your complaint. I apologize for this. We would like to invite you to our restaurant for dinner to correct your impression of us. What time would be convenient for you? Or maybe we can send dinner home for you? Sincerely, Daria”

I replied thanking her for the message. I explained that I do not live in Moscow but often visit & will do next month. I told her that I would consider her offer. I explained I suffered with a lot of stomach pain for 3 days as a result of what happened on my previous visit. Which made me reluctant to return.

Daria replied stating: “Good evening. Thank you very much for your feedback. It is very important for us to correct your impression. We look forward to seeing you. Sincerely, Daria.”

What surprised me was that after over 3 weeks since my complaint, no one had even offered an apology. The only apology was for the late reply.

I was due to fly to Moscow on 16 Feb & decided to accept Daria's offer of dinner. I hoped the lack of willingness to apologise could be put down to some language barrier over text. I was mistaken.

In an ideal world, if Sakhalin was a fine dining restaurant that cared about it’s customers, something like the following would have happened; Upon arrival the manager on duty would have then introduced themselves, given a genuine apology for what had occurred on my previous visit, reassured me that they have since taken steps to give refresher training to staff to ensure that those kind of mistakes are not repeated, further reassured me that they had personally spoken to the head chef who will be ensuring that every dish served to me was gluten free, & at the very least offered something complimentary by way of apology. Any self-respecting restaurant would also have refunded me in full for the meal I ate on the previous visit considering the magnitude of the mistake made.

Sadly none of the above happened. There was no acknowledgement regarding my previous visit & compliant & no apology. No manager spoke to us & we were charged full price for every dish. Why invite me to the restaurant for that? Is it really so hard to apologise to a customer when your staff have made such...

A rare guest in my review list having 3,5 points only. Is that possible for the WRGroup? Appeared to be real. Now, to likes and dislikes. Dislike: logistics (meaning accessibility to the spot), elevators are just as old as the building itself, thus slow and tight;) queues usually mean popular for the resto but not in this place, not in this case. Like: the view from this outdated hotel is really stunning. Like: well taught personnel both at the desk and inside, top of politeness. Dislike: despite the quantity the staff are often lost among the tables for a bit excessive moments. Like: variable, well structured and designed menu. Dislike: ceviche does not need experiments ;) Stick to the Peruvian original style and customers will love you for good;) Like: sashimi proves the latter. Gorgeous! Like: wine list is fantastic. (Double) Dislike: having markup for wines around 6 (!!!) is bad manners. Like: experimental cocktails suit this institution for sure. Like: experimental desserts are worth ordering,...

Увы, пришлось столкнуться почти с невероятным в ресторанах Москвы с подобным ценником. С обсчётом, да-да, с обсчетом, и два раза за короткий период. Обставляется относительно элегантно-правдоподобно, но два случая за месяц заставляют отбросить всякие сомнения (которые преобладали в пользу ресторана после первого раза). В первое посещение (буквально первые дни после открытия «Сахалина») посчитали анандар по весу по взятому с потолка ценнику. В меню они были поштучно (как, собственно, почти везде по Москве). Поставил на вид - извинялись вполне правдоподобно, да и против меню спорить сложновато (я поверил, и решили пойти к ним на Новый год из-за отличных гребешков и расположения на последнем этаже гостиницы на Садовом кольце - ожиданий салютов). Гребешки без сомнения хороши, и если Вы только за ними, рассмотрите этот ресторан (но делайте заказ под запись и проверяйте счёт!). Внимание, обманывают!! Второе посещение, Новый Год, собственно. Ресторан настаивал на предзаказе - странно и неудобно, обосновывали желанием все заказать и приготовить свежее. Не поленился, расписал в Экселе построчно с граммами / штуками и ценами и направил их event-manager'у. Никогда не было, и вот опять ))) (В.С. Черномырдин). Вместо заказанных 500 г гребешка получите 2,1 кг, вместо заказанных 500 г лангустинов получите 2 кг. Причина - «у вас (меня то есть) указано на одного», поэтому умножили на четыре (человек в заказе). Уточнять заказ, как Вы верно понимаете, никто не пытался. Хотя в заказе указано было 500 грамм веса и итоговая цена - тоже за 500 грамм того и другого. Когда принесли гребешки и лангустинов, усомнился, наш ли это заказ - для 500 г выглядело явно многовато (напомню, заказано было по 500 г гребешков и лангустинов, а принесли по 2 кг). Уверили, что заказ верный. Но: вместо 500 г, напомню, посчитали 2,1 кг гребешка и 2 кг лангустина. И стояли «до последнего». Получите - распишитесь. Подзабылось уже, но снова всплыло неожиданно и грустно в этом месте напоминание о прошедшем печальном времени, когда такое было... не необычно. Это не то, что я хочу видеть в ресторанах Москвы в 2019 году. Мне в них обычно нравится. Надеюсь, это недоразумение не задержится на рынке. К слову, сахалинского в ресторане «Сахалин» почти ничего нет. Устрицы японские, рыба на Новый год была тюрбо, сибас и дорадо (брал тюрбо, и, увы, очень расстроен - судя по вкусу, она нас долго ждала). Raw bar хороший, но обман убивает все. Спасибо, что дочитали ) Может,...