The Flint — Restaurant in Albany

My family and I decided to eat here on Valentines Day after deciding not to go out of town for a change in scenery. This was our first visit to this restaurant, so I called a few hours before we arrived to see if reservations were needed. I’m glad I did because when we arrived, it was packed. Shortly after arriving, we were greeted and asked if we had reservations. I informed the hostess that we did and waited about 15 to 20 minutes before we were seated. That was no biggie given the occasion and the crowd that was there. After being escorted to our table, we noticed how nice the establishment was and enjoyed listening to the one man band that was performing( he was great) as we waited for our waitress to come to greet us. We sat at our table for about 30 to 45 minutes before our waitress came by to greet us. I admit we were getting a little irritated waiting, but gave them a pass again due to the occasion. We ordered our drinks and an appetizer and knew that this would be a simple task and that she would be back in no time, but that was not the case. I believe it took about another 30 minutes or so the get our drinks. She finally brought the drinks, but no appetizer. We asked how much longer it would be, she said they should be out shortly. We proceed to place our main course order while continuing to wait on our appetizer. Probably about another 30 minutes later finally, we get our appetizer. After some time pass, We noticed that our main dishes were taking a long time as well, so we asked the waitress if she knew how much longer it would be. She returned to our table and stated that it will be up shortly, so I asked her how many cook did they have on staff, she said three, but they only had one fryer and that was why our food was delayed. My husband and I ordered fish. He had the red snapper and I ordered the catfish instead of the lamb that I had my mind set on before we arrived. I just felt that for the price of the lamb and the portion (after inquiring) was not worth it, so I decided against it. My son ordered a steak. Mind you that we had been there over two hours and was still waiting. Finally, my husband saw an older lady that we were told was the owner and motioned for her to come over to our table, instead of her coming over, she threw up her finger as to say give me a minute and walked to the back. After a few minutes passed, he walked towards the location where she was and complained about our wait time. He said she was short with him and told him that she would check on it, but never offered an apology and it seemed like she really didn’t care. We were shocked to say the least given that this was such a nice establishment and somewhat new to the city. You would think that the owner would have been more professional and not rude, but not... We also noticed while we were waiting on our food, how she the owner and her husband would walk around and greet and talk to certain people and ignore others. As an owner it is your responsibility to ensure that everyone in your establishment is made to feel welcome, and at least speak to as many of your customers as possible especially on a night like that one. Our food finally was brought to our table and I cannot take anything from the food. After waiting for soooo long, I must say everything was cooked perfectly and tasted great. However, I feel that you can have the best food in the world, but if you don’t have great customer service, you have nothing. You cannot have one without the other to survive , it’s impossible. Based on my personal experience, I feel that there is a great need of better training with the staff and owners. I’m not sure if the owners, have gone to business school, but if so, a refresher course or two won’t hurt. It may be a good idea to hire a professional management team to come in to handle the day to day operations.This restaurant can really be something big for Albany, but the right people have to be put in place to take it to the next level. Until that happens, my family and I will not be...

Myself and my friend visited this restaurant for the first time on Friday 3/5/21. We were looking forward to enjoying a nice evening with good food, drinks and a nice atmosphere. Well it was not to our expectations. We were first greeted by a female that stated she would seat us shortly. The best guy came up to us and stated they would be right back to seat us. The third person that approached us and stated they would seat us was actually the owner. He stated to us that it would be a 20 minute wait and we were ok with that. He then stated that we could take a seat in the lounge area or the bar until a table was available. We proceeded to sit in the lounge area. We then decide def to go sit at the bar. We were greeted by the male bartender who stated he would be with us shortly. About 10 minutes later a female bartender asked if someone was helping us in which we stated “No.” 10 minutes later she came to take my drink order. Ok it then took her 10 more minutes to fix my drink and get it to me. At this time we’re watching people being seated that came in after us...I’m aware that they may have had a reservation but that wasn’t what the owner stated to us when we were waiting to be seated. By now we’ve been waiting to be seated for 40 minutes. We watched patiently as the owner walked the restaurant time after time but he only walked a certain area of the restaurant as if he was putting more attention to a certain party that was there before us. We then watched him come to the bar to seat this other couple and i was thinking “He has forgotten about us.” I then proceeded to walk over and ask the owner if he had forgotten about us. He then stated “I did forget y’all...I’m not gonna lie...i forgot about y’all. So my friend got Rockefeller to say “We were waiting patiently but we saw several other parties being seated knowing we were her before them and you told us it would be only a 20 minute wait...what are you going to do to accommodate us?” The owner stated in a hostile, arrogant & disrespectful tone “I’M NOT GONNA DO ANYTHING BUT SEAT YALL...THAT’S ALL I’M GONNA DO.” So I’m very flabbergasted by his tone and demeanor by now. I felt very disrespected and annoyed. We then said ok let’s just leave and have dinner somewhere else. As we were leaving my friend was about to pay for the drink that i did not get a chance to drink. I told him no you’re not paying for anything because i don’t drink it...it’s right there at the bar. The owner then followed us out of the restaurant yelling “YALL GOTTA WAIT AY FIR THE DRINK BECAUSE YALL ORDERED IT.” My friend then tried to hand him the money to pay...the owner turned around and within 5 seconds he was back with the officer. My friend stated I tried to hand him the money but he was so irate and yelling that he didn’t see me with my hand out to pay for the drink. The office proceeded to apologize to us and stated that he was sorry for the inconvenience. I’ve never experienced anything like this before. I was so disgusted with his behavior that i will never visit his establishment again. This guy is very obnoxious and full of himself. He never apologized for any of his actions and disregarded how he treated us at his restaurant. If i could i would definitely give this place a few negative stars. VERY CERY...

Have been there 3 times now. My rating is based on the last visit but I'll rate each visit separately as well.

1st visit: party of 5 slow service.. Ordered a 9 dollar blue moon beer and it took them about 5 minutes to bring to the table although the restaurant was almost empty at the time and we were in a both right next to the bar that we could see no one was moving to get it. Second beer took longer... But that is OK, since they were still new. Food came out and it was delicious,. 4 stars that visit, did not get 5 because of speed of service for the drink. Yes I know this is not McDonald's but I expect quicker service for the alcohol.

2nd visit : Happy hour Tuesday (party of 4) 2 dollar taco and 3 dollar margarita Service was slower than previous time for drinks and this time also for food. Ordered first beer and took about 20 minutes (went bottle this time to see if quicker) Tacos took longer and I ordered 4 tacos Beef and chicken wife chicken and chicken and got beef and shrimp (allergic to shrimp ) could not tell that it was shrimp but good thing that he put my wife's plate on mine and started with the chicken one, but my wife started hers and it was shrimp . Luckily she is not allergic but that mix up could have been bad for me. Tacos were good (again, lucky I did not bite the shrimp one) but service was slower than usual, especially for the drink.

Last visit : happy hour Tuesday party of 8 Going down hill ... Very very slow service and rude worker

4 of us get there, sit down and order beverages,i tell the waitress that I've been there before and usually slow to get beverages and to see if she could maybe help us out a bit.. She telook the order and we saw her not go to the bar or the area where the orders are entered. 5 minutes later 2 more from party show up.. 5 minutes later other 2 show up and grab a chair from another table and a guy that works there came to us and said to not ever do that again that we need to tell them to get for us and not get ourselves.. In a very rude and almost threatening tone. He then said it's OK this time, but don't do it again and shook the two guy's hand from our party.. We had to talk them two to stay, because they were about to leave because of the rudeness of that guy

But OK 10 minutes have gone by, and no sight of anyone to also then order food. 15 minutes go by (now 25)and we get our drinks for the 4 that came first and she did not ask if we were ready to order or if the rest of the folks there wanted anything. . Finaly able to place the order and took over 35 minutes more for the tacos to come in.. Meanwhile I order another beer and they brought it to me when I was ready to go and asked for the check. I refused the beer (ready to go by then)

Overall they will lose customers because of their bad service and if the employees are as rude as the guy that basically chewed us out..

Food is good,...