I found at the beginning of this week that I got tenure promotion to Associate Professor from UC Berkeley. To celebrate this once in a lifetime achievement with my lab, I chose Comal. I have had relatively good experience with this establishment before and upon finding out about the downstairs dining place, I thought it would be the perfect venue for this very special occasion. However, I was absolutely wrong in my assumption.

We arrived in small groups shortly after 5:30 and for a period of less than 1 h, our group was 28 people + 2 toddlers. Our server, who looked extremely anxious and expressively overwhelmed, told me and a several of my guests that she did not know that we would be larger than 22 people and that we can’t stand up. I mentioned to her that I communicated over email and that the ”over the 22 people” limit was okayed and that it would be temporary. I also mentioned that she doesn’t need to worry about formality as we were hoping for a casual experience rather than a strictly sit-down formal dining. Not to mention that one of the little ones was a little fussy as he wanted his parents to carry him standing. The server repeatedly complained about this to a point that the family left even before the main dishes arrived, followed by 2 other people who had later plans, leaving the total number of people to 24 adults and one toddler for the remainder of the time. Witnessing my disappointment early on, the server suggested that I talk to the manager ( I can’t remember his name), who was decently accommodating. I mentioned to him about the transient state of crowdedness. Shortly after talking to him, the general manager Zack came downstairs to talk to me. He was patronizing, rather rude and condescending, where I felt completely humiliated. He noted that even if people leave, we are not allowed to accept anyone downstairs and that I signed an agreement for 22 people and that it was mentioned it’s against the rules to be over capacity (btw I can’t see this statement in the application that I filled). In fact two people came by later after we were down to 24 adults and a toddler, but I met with them in the patio and politely told them that they can’t come downstairs, which was quite upsetting.

I ended up paying a bill of 2341$ (dinner for 28 people and drinks). Honestly, I don’t care much about the cost even though I think it’s an unreasonable charge given that 4 people didn’t get to eat main course or dessert and 2 of the guests were little kids. The part that upsets me most is the treatment we received and the restriction we felt about enjoying the evening- people were literally scared of the server and I was scared of her + Zack, who I felt threatened by.

As a nearby restaurant to UC Berkeley campus, I have been to Comal many times before- never had anything remotely close to this terrible experience. In fact I have a group dinner with f on Monday. However, after what I’ve been through last night, I just emailed my colleague to cancel. I don’t think I’ll step into Comal ever again as this has been an absolutely traumatizing night, rather than a pleasant and joyful experience as we anticipated.