Savor Restaurant — Restaurant in Carmel

What started off as a beautiful romantic night away from kids and work, turned into a nightmare at the end of the night. My date and I had received recommendations from friends to try Savor. We pride ourselves on supporting local restaurants and eat out regularly around town on a weekly basis. We had a bottle of wine like we always do when dining out, the artichoke appetizer, caprese salad and ordered a pair of filets. The food, the atmosphere and our waitress were amazing. No complaints on those 3 things. Fun atmosphere. Food tasted great and our waitress was at the top of her game. Unfortunately, our problem was with the owner’s wife. Before our filets came out, my date went outside to call and check on her kids and have a smoke. As she was walking out, the owner’s wife was standing at the hostess station and made a rude remark to my date. Upon coming back inside, my date asked the owners wife why she made a rude remark. The response was “you were going outside to smoke and you were stumbling”. The owner’s wife continued to degrade my date and make her feel as if she did something wrong. My date came back to the table and told me everything. First off, my date and I split a bottle of wine. Which is a normal occurrence for us. I even watched her walk outside and she was nowhere near stumbling. The owner’s wife continued to give us dirty looks and even went to the kitchen to grab her husband who is also the owner. They both stood at the hostess station looking at us, as if we did something wrong. We were so disgusted by the lack of professionalism and customer service, that we told our waitress to bring us the filets in a to-go bag and bring us the bill. We paid the bill and tipped our waitress extra, as she did a wonderful job and it’s not her fault that she works for horrible people. As we were leaving the husband and wife owners gave us dirty looks and watched us leave. When I got home my date was very upset the rest of the night. I myself was shocked by the lack up customer service. I couldn’t believe that owners of a restaurant would act this way. I looked up Google reviews and found a treasure chest of complaints against the owner and his wife. So now I understood that this behavior by the owners was not unusual. In fact, it seems like the owners are rude and disrespectful to customers on a regular basis. I will never be visiting Savor, Flamme burger or any other business associated with the Najem family. I don’t think I have ever written a scathing review for any restaurant in Indianapolis, but unfortunately Savor is my first. If you don’t believe me, please read other reviews about the rudeness from the owners. Then it will all make sense. My extensive network of friends, family and business associates will be informed of this bad experience and I hope that word spreads around town. In all my life I have never seen owners of a restaurant pick a fight with paying customers who were mining their...

I have never left a bad review for a restaurant but after we were told we were wrong by the manager (who from after reading other negative reviews I believe was the owner) and that the chef refused to even offer to refire our dish (we hadn’t even asked for him too at that point) I have too as it’s beyond deserved.

My Husband order the South African twin lobster tails. They were beyond overcooked. They had a texture that was closer to chicken then lobster. It was literally hard to chew.

We informed the waiter and he immediately apologized and got the manager without us asking one. She came over and immediately without us even speaking first, leaned on our table and said “there’s was nothing wrong with that lobster, it’s opaque all the way through and they chef is not going to refire a dish that there was nothing wrong with”

I was taken aback. I’ve never been treated so poorly or flat out told I am wrong in a restaurant. (We also rarely send food back, only of there is something severely wrong…I think the last time we sent food back was when my Husband found 3 long black hairs in his scrambled eggs (not at Savor)

I told her I’m from New England and unfortunately the lobster has a texture closer to chicken and was extremely tough for a lobster. She then informed me this was not lobster from New England, that Maine lobster is warm water lobster and South African lobster is cold water lobster and that I must have never had cold water lobster because there was nothing wrong with her chef’s lobster.

I didn’t argue because several tables were already staring at her defending her tough lobster. I wanted to tell her that

1. Maine and South African lobster are BOTH cold water lobster.

2. You don’t tell a customer they can’t have the dish refired or even offer them something else.

The Waiter did come back and apologize after the manager left and offered to get us something else off the menu, but honestly we didn’t want another penny to go to that establishment.

We will not be back simply due to the poor management, lack of ownership of a mistake, and the overall poor experience. If the situation had been handled properly I wouldn’t even be leaving this review because we all make mistakes, it’s how we handle our mistakes, that’s what is truly important.

We did pay for the food we ate. The waiter told us he removed my Husabnd’s entree. We left him a 40% tip as we were aware his hands are tired and he at least treated us with courtesy and handled the situation the best he could.

I wavered on leaving this review due to the owners degrading responses towards former patrons and refusal to take responsibility of any bad experience. Good business owners extend olive branches, own mistakes, and simply say, sorry, we will attempt to do...

To be brief, our experience was very disappointing after Savor “management” did not honor our reservation. This is my first negative review, ever, which makes this difficult.

My pregnant wife and I were very excited to have our first date night in over 4 months. Of course, a busy summer schedule with children impacted this, but our closest family live approximately 600 miles away. Needless to say, we finally had an evening to ourselves. We made reservations at Savor and replied to Savor’s automated text confirming our reservation.

Upon arriving downtown Carmel, naturally, it was very busy. I dropped my wife off at Savor 12 minutes prior to our reservation to ensure she could check in with the Savor host/hostess. After 15 minutes I found a parking spot in the second parking garage I visited; Saturday night in Carmel definitely presents a logistical challenge.

I think the above-mentioned is noteworthy because they will not seat their patrons if the entire party is not there… even if it is only a “two-top.”

I hustled from the parking garage and arrived to Savor about 15 minutes after our reservation time. Again, my wife had been checked-in 15 minutes before our reservation but they would not seat her, even though I was parking and making my way to the restaurant.

After arriving the “manager” referenced their internal policy and said our reservation was canceled because I was late. I simply said “okay” and departed. While walking out, a hostess sarcastically said “byyyyye.”

My thoughts - working in the service industry while in college I learned patrons will certainly remember good food, but an experience is primarily what brings people back, thus spending more money. This starts with great leaders and managerial staff, which I believe Savor lacks.

So, we went to Monterey Coastal Cuisine and had a wonderful experience. The manager happened to greet us at the door. Although they were very busy too, they sat us immediately after we explained our reservations were canceled at Savor. From there, the waiter was kind, jovial, and knew the menu. The food was amazing, too! This exhibits great leadership/managerial staff that (from my experience) Savor lacks.

My opinion, visit Monterey Coastal Cuisine; they will treat you well and you will enjoy their...