Wren — Restaurant in Beaufort

We had dinner reservations at 7:30 last night at The Wren. There were 3 of us ladies. We arrived promptly at 7:30 and were seated at a dirty table and moved after the hostess noticed which was very nice. Our server finally arrived after we had sat for about 10 mins. We were chatting and didn’t think anything of it. She arrived without a smile or introduction. She asked for our drink order and we asked for a wine menu. She snapped at us and said it was on the table (it was not) and she went away and returned with one. She was pissy because we didn’t have our order within the 10 seconds we had to look at the wine menu. The wine glasses were Walmart special at best I will add. Do better on stemware Wren. Two of us ordered salmon, one medium and one medium well, both were rare. The food runner brought our food out and since our server never came to our table to check on us once, we ate our salads around the salmon. The “Caesar” was no Caesar salad. Had mixed greens instead of romaine. She came over when we were done and said she would bring the check without asking us if we wanted another beverage or dessert. We had had it. I explained to her that servers choose to work in the service industry and if she doesn’t like people, she shouldn’t. We did nothing wrong. She clearly didn’t want to be there and made our experience unpleasant. I’m an executive chef and my team would never behave this way and I make sure of it. This is a management and top down problem at The Wren. We noticed every server looked miserable to be there. We overheard another server going on and on about how she needs money to a couple she was serving. It was all so uncomfortable for such a nice restaurant with shockingly good reviews. We will...

I wish I could recommend Wren, but I can't. We've eaten there three times in the past few months and each time has been a disappointment.

While the food is good, you go to a restaurant for more than just the food. The entire experience hinges on the food, service and ambiance. On the last two, Wren fails miserably. And it all starts at the top, with the management. If they fail to train their staff, everything else falls apart. When we most recently visited Wren, two of our four entrees were lukewarm at best. We tried repeatedly to get the attention of SOMEONE who worked there, but to no avail. And they were not busy at all. I asked one waiter to get our waiter - which he later admitted he never did. By the time I had to get the manager and they brought two new entrees, the other two people in our party had finished their meals. All in all, not an enjoyable experience for our family.

It's simply not that hard! Train your waitstaff to look for empty appetizer plates and remove them. Train them to look for low or empty water, tea or wine glasses and take appropriate action. Train them to come by a few minutes after each course is delivered to ensure it is to the customers satisfaction. None of that has occurred during our last two visits. The waitstaff walks quickly by tables, not stopping to see if there's anything that is needed. Other restaurant employees clean tables without ever glancing around to see if anyone might be trying to get their attention.

Insofar as the ambiance, it's loud. It was difficult for our party of four to hear one another due to the poor selection of materials to buffer noise.

Doubt we'll ever go back. Three strikes...

My husband and I have been spending some time in Beaufort due to work and trying out some of the local places. So far we’ve been rather disappointed and Wren was no exception. We arrived for our 8 o clock reservation when I got out of work and were seated fairly quickly. We ordered some drinks and immediately realized our waitress was in a terrible hurry. Basically every word she said to us was while she was either rushing by our table or walking away from the table next to us. This resulted in an extra soup that we didn’t order, another round of exactly the same drinks that we didn’t want, and (since they were out of two things I wanted), the wrong side dish with my meal. She just refused to stay and listen. It also took over an hour to receive our food. This is something I’ve noticed at places in this area. I get that many people going out on a Saturday want to sit for two hours and savor, but I don’t think it should be assumed that you just want to sit there with empty drinks and no food FOREVER. Honestly, every employee in the place seemed super focused on closing the place and not taking care of the people eating there. Understandable at midnight, not at 9! My husbands burger was very good and he enjoyed it. I had the flounder which was awful. I do not understand why you would bread and fry fish and then SATURATE it in sugar water. The “relish” they put on it is so sweet and watery that it completely ruins the dish. Gross. The best food we’ve had in Beaufort is door dash Chinese. I think we’ll save a whole lot of money and...