Square Roots — Restaurant in Center Township

I want to start off by saying, I waited almost 2 months to write this because I was waiting to be contacted by the owner, which never happened so I am going to air it out. Long read but promise you should read it all to see how this place operates. I was a frequent patron, went here often with my family up until recently. We always have a pretty large bill as we always order apps and meals for everyone. March 29th we were served by Allen. He came, took our order, didn't see him again until he came by and brought my son a refill. Someone else brought us our apps and meals. When it was time to pay, he came up to grab my card and then held the handheld and asked "18%, 20% or 22%?" I didn't think I heard that correctly so I looked up and asked him to repeat what he had said. He then repeated the percentages, confused I went to grab the handheld as I do every where else and he backed away and said "I can do it for you". Every time I reached for it, he pulled it away. I finally said "I'm going to chose custom" and that's when the most unprofessional, insulting thing that's ever happened to me in a restaurant (and I dine regularly) He said very loudly, in a restaurant filled with people "is there a reason you only tip $5 on a $100 bill?" I responded that I never tip $5 and also stated I never had him as a server. He insisted we have but he was referring to another server who tossed my card at me on the table and walked away. Which I thought was not intentional until this experience. Now I know 100% intentional. After he kept taunting us about our tip, I flipped the handheld over to show him it was not $5, which is beyond crazy. Not sure how many of you have ever had to do that, but this was a first for me. I walked out with my family, shocked and embarrassed that something like that was done. After thinking about it and telling others what had just happened, I decided to call the restaurant and speak to the manager to let them know how we were treated. I spoke to Gabe, who would not let me email the owner directly, told me to just go online and leave a review privately on the website and he will reach out to me that way. I also requested my tip to be refunded as I don't think that behavior deserved anything at all. They did refund the tip, but I have never been contacted. I can insure you all, there are much better restaurants in the area to patronize with much better service and food. Stay away from this place, they all have attitudes and obviously customer service and food is not...

We recently dined in on a Saturday afternoon, party of 3 and upon greeting the host we were asked if a high top table would be ok. It didn't really matter where we sat, so we all agreed and said sure. Now my boyfriend and I were not planning on doing any drinking, and our other friend with us happened to be 7 months pregnant. Though not one of us ordered an alcoholic drink, we were all promptly carded by the waitress for sitting in the bar area. My pregnant friend couldn't find her ID, and even though she was clearly not planning on drinking nor was anyone else at our table, our waitress stood and waited several minutes for her to locate the ID card (which we found later in the car.) She left to get our waters/sodas and came back bothered, still waiting to check the ID, and ultimately my friend had to pull a photo of her passport to suffice the waitress. On top of it being uncomfortable already, the waitress was extremely rude and short with her words, and was seemingly very put out that she had to wait for the ID.. of the pregnant woman. The entire situation in general was ridiculous to experience, I understand having a policy about carding adults at the bar, but it wasn't exactly our choice to sit there and it was the host who offered that table, though other tables in the regular dining area seemed available. I started by ordering the elote dip which I'd had once before during my first visit to this establishment a couple years ago. Before I could even get the words out the waitress finished my sentence like "yeah yeah the elote dip ok would you like anything else?" As if it's the most commonly ordered item on the menu and she was either annoyed that we ordered it, or perhaps she was just annoyed after learning we'd not be ringing out a massive bar tab, affecting her tip. We ordered a lot of food. The kitchen runners brought it all out and she checked on us again a couple times later, but her attitude remained pretty atrocious throughout the entire meal. We all talked about it after leaving the restaurant and couldn't believe how our party was treated. We always always tip 20% or higher, but after this most recent experience I will think twice before recommending this restaurant to anyone in the area, and with service like this we certainly won't be back...

My shift at the restaurant I work at was to end at 8, but I still had a table so I was unable to leave until about 8:50. My husband had met me at work because he wanted to go out to dinner with me at Square Roots. I knew the kitchen probably closed at 9 or 10, but we still wanted to try to make it on time for food. I completely understand, from working in a restaurant, that when the kitchen is closed, it is closed. But when we arrived it was almost 9. One of the cooks came up to the bar for something and the bar tender (bald, tall, super nice!) tried to ask him if it would be okay to order food for us. The cook didn’t answer him directly but just said ‘ it’s up to the guy’, as he pointed to the kitchen doors. He walked away. The bar tender said he would put it in as we ordered quickly just to see. I completely would have understood if they said no. About 10 seconds later, the same cook who had come up to the bar before came up again. This time he had with him our ticket order for food. He tore it in half and slammed it on the bar next to my husband and walked away without a word. None of us understood what that meant but assumed it meant the kitchen was closed. I do not care if coworkers have quarrels with one another, or whatever the case may be, but this is the WORST customer service move anyone could make. We easily would have said ‘no problem, we understand!’ If the cook had just come around the the other side of me (and opening to the bar closest to the kitchen) and explained to the bartender and us, as customers, that the kitchen was closed. Slamming a ticket next to a customer is completely un-called-for. If it weren’t for Jessica and Lena, I would never come here again. I am very disappointed. I also had just mentioned that I hoped the chef would be part of the cook-off at Bulldog Park in September, and was very excited for the kitchen to be a part of this! As a kitchen, you work as a team. Well now I’m not so sure this team is worthy of anything. One team member can bring down the rest with a bad attitude and poor customer service. Keep that in mind when your job is to tend to customers as well as run a business, whoever that sad excuse...