Salt & Stone — Restaurant in California

1/2/24: My husband and I had long wanted to go to this restaurant. Today, despite the super cold and raining weather, we decided to drive out from Santa Rosa and have a meal there. I checked the website to make sure it was open, and, it was stating "open until 9:00 p.m.". We got there at 2:30. Parked in the handicapped stall and, with my cane in hand, carefully walked inside. We saw that it looked very nice inside, and, were happy to see at least two open tables in the dining room.

A young lady came and greeted us. She immediately told us that she was going to seat us in the Bar and that we would be ordering off the Bar Menu as they stopped serving the lunch menu at 2:30. I asked if that meant we would be restricted to "Bar food" instead of a plated meal. She assured me that there was plenty to choose from on the Bar Menu.

We walked into the bar and I was quickly dismayed to see that the seating choices were tall seats at tall bistro tables, or, slightly less tall seats at the Bar counter. I am 68 years old, 4'9.6" tall and walking with a cane. The seat height on the "table chairs" came up to my MID-CHEST. My husband asked if there were "Booster steps" that she could roll out for me to get into the chair at the Bar's bistro table. The answer to that was a chuckle, so, "no." Of course, there was no way for me to get on those chairs. And, if I HAD been able to, well, my dangling legs would have been quickly asleep from my circulation being cut off . . .as my dangling legs would still have out my feet far, far, from the floor.

I looked at the counter seats and they were not as tall, but, would still be a bit hard to get onto. Again, dangling legs with feet off the floor.

I told her that I couldn't get up onto the high chairs and that the Bar counter chairs were too high, too.

She said she could place us OUTSIDE on the patio, where there was a heater. You can see by my 2 photos, that it was pouring rain. So, no.

I suppose she figured her employer had made enough money for the day, and that they didn't need our business, because, she didn't bother to ask anyone if it would be okay to seat the old people (one of whom was on a cane and too short to climb into the Bar chairs) at a table in the dining room with the understanding that we had to choose from the Bar Menu.

She did not offer to ask about that possibility. We didn't want to sit outside on a patio when it was pouring rain and I could not have climbed into those Bar chairs if I wanted to.

So, we left.

We will never go there again. We felt that there was zero acknowledgement of the obvious handicap of a customer, despite my telling her that there was no way i could get into those tall chairs. There was zero attempt to accommodate a handicapped customer, at all.

She could even have sat us in the bar by pulling over a short table and two normal chairs from the dining room, but, she didn't think of that, and, since she never asked anyone in charge, nobody else had any suggestions for how to seat us so we could spend some...

Today was one of those experiences you wished didn’t happen at one of my favorite restaurants. For decades I’ve visited Kenwood Winery and also picked somewhere to have lunch with friends or clients. Benefits of joining wine clubs! Salt & Stone was always a top pick! Unfortunately today something was off with our waiter, Tom. Tom made for an horrible experience for my husband and I. We made our 12:45pm reservation online, arrived on time and were seated at a beautiful table. Another couple in line with us asked us if he had dined here before and of course we had nothing but good things to say. They were seated across from us. We noticed had their soup and main course already and they even gave us a look, like where’s your food? Our waiter, Tom took our drink and food order and seemed very friendly. He came back with bread and our drinks and that was the last time we saw him for 45mins! I noticed it was 1:30pm so for 45mins my husband and I sat chatting and enjoying our time but also had no food. Nothing! Not even a refill on our drinks. My husband explained to Tom that we had afternoon plans and Tom’s response to him was, well your welcome to just leave and walked off. Nothing else, not even sorry let me check on your food or something other than that response. OMG that had to be the worst thing to say to a us. My husband stood up and walked out. At that time I saw the owner and I explained that the kitchen was talking too long and didn’t even have a chance to explain her server’s attitude with my husband. The other couple even told the owner, yes we walked in together and they haven’t even been served a thing. He gave me a sad look, because he noticed my husband walked out. He could tell how disappointed I was. She told me she could check on our food but at that point I saw my husband standing out front giving me the look, which means he’s isn’t coming back in. Would you??? Tom ruined our afternoon with just his one comment!! Waiters need to remember just how hard the restaurant owners work to establish the clientele and we have other options. Just because your restaurant was packed today doesn’t guarantee it always will be. I can honestly say that ruin our afternoon and it will be hard for me to come back after being treated like that. I was a long time loyal client that referred plenty of people over the years and Tom you blew that for the owner and us. Guess I can move Girl and a Fig to our top pick now or the Sonoma Grill. Remember you may have good food but treat your customers with respect. We drove 80 miles to dine at your location and you screwed our afternoon up! That’s why I’m giving...

I have yet to find anything (after about seven visits) other than truffle fries that are good there, and I normally never order fries but it’s the only thing I find good on the menu! It is a little bit on the pricey side. Quality issues: I got a salad with dried orange segments with seeds in it. It wasn’t just grilled chicken on top. It had some weird marinade taste to it that I did not care for or the dressing. And really I’m not that picky, but just put grilled chicken on top! The worst breakfast I’ve ever had with the rudest, older, blonde woman who seats you and a waiter that I’ve had twice outside in the patio before. The fish tacos at happy hour are OK but very little fish. The garden area is pretty. It’s across from some beautiful Vineyards, so that is the only thing that I can think of why people give her any kind of a higher mark. I am a foodie, and I’ve traveled a lot and this is some of the worst I’ve ever encountered in an atmosphere that should be high end. Their ahi tuna sandwich has a huge piece of tuna, but they put a horseradish sauce on it, which kills the taste of everything else. The attitude of that older woman when my aunt was in town, and my sister came up, was so disrespectful and unprofessional. I don’t know how she has a job there, unless she’s one of the owners. The young boys, who refresher Water are very sweet and kind. We asked if we could sit one table over outside from a large party so we weren’t on top of each other and she counted four chairs at the table we were going to sit and four chairs at the other table . She said “I guess so“ then they completely got my sister‘s order wrong such as in hard-boiled egg (as much as you can cook an egg) to a runny poached egg. No apology, grabbed the plate away, scraped off the egg and put a new one on! The description of the menu is very deceiving when it says it has broccolini and all this other stuff imagine chopping up one piece of broccolini and two very small segments and sprinkling a few underneath the egg. I would never recommend this place to anyone other than wine or cocktails. Even the dining room for dinner gets very noisy. Too bad since it’s at a...