The Watch Rooftop Kitchen and Spirits — Restaurant in Charleston

After today, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. I was apart of the group that came to have brunch.

Observations of what went wrong:

Your (Asian) hostess- don’t know her name. Never ever ever approach a restaurant table to rush them to hurry up and pay so that you can accommodate another party! Never ever ever, peak around a corner in full view of a party to decide how to get rid of them faster! Never ever ever within an earshot say that you’re going to only give them 15 minutes! Immediate correction is needed, whether in writing or dismissal. The flagrant attitude that you presented shows the value that our customer base has within your company. You literally made me(I’ll speak for myself) feel as if the next party was more important than ours. Which is confusing as you seated and hosted a table of professional women, out to have a great time. The values that you were raised with show that you have a bias that needs to be corrected immediately. You owe your coworker the money she lost due to your behavior.

Waitress: you actually did a good job with the food service. In fact, many of the ladies had decided to tip you well (as a reminder this is NOT a requirement). Here’s where you messed up. You rang up the items as one unit as if only one person was ordering. While I understood the policy of accepting only 3 forms of payment, you could have easily split the check between 2 tables and accepted up to 3 payments on each check. You also needed to keep track of every order from each person and assign that order to each person. Also if you have a table of 14 or more. They are your top priority! So trying to rush and have us “hurry up and pay”…… wrong move! If you were serious about our enjoyment, you would have stayed and made sure everything was handled properly. You also messed up by caving into the pressure of hurrying us along to seat the next table. Pressure placed on you by the aforementioned hostess. Slamming items, ringing up incorrect amounts on debit cards. All because you allowed negativity to consume your experience. Literally that hostess cost you big time!!! She owes you.

Management: I understand that you host a certain clientele everyday. However, I’m sure you understand how this one experience completely changed my mind about introducing anyone else to your establishment. It took you 20 minutes to even attend to our issue. Again showing that we weren’t a priority. A $700 bill wasn’t a priority. I do hope you hold to your word concerning correction of that hostess.

I don’t believe this restaurant deserves our community’s patronage. I for sure...

So we had reserved a table for 6 over a week before coming. When we showed up, first off there was no one at the hostess stand, then when she did show up she was clearly bored with her job, no enthusiasm, had no idea what was going on and had an attitude when we tried to tell her we had a reservation. She didn't look up our reservations, sat us, and clearly didn't tell anyone that she sat us. We had to keep asking other employees as to where our server was and we waited well over 10 minutes before any server even showed up to welcome us and apologize saying there was a "misunderstanding with the wait staff about who was waiting on our table" (mind you it was 11 am and maybe 4 other parties in the restaurant). We ordered drinks and they didn't arrive for another 10 minutes, and we had to ask other waitresses where our drinks were. Same delays happened with ordering and receiving food. Additionally, every single food order was incorrect. I'm not talking about a little thing, items which were clearly stated on the menu did not come out with our order.

And here is the major kicker, one of the members of our party was the only person to order something different than any of us, and he ended up having horrible and violent FOOD POISONING that evening. It's the only time in our entire trip that anyone ate something different than what the group ate (all visited restaurants prior were fixed menu to accommodate our moderate sized group). By the way, not a single employee offered an apology to our group for the horrible lack of service, mishandling our food orders and making errors, or the delays. No gm, no manager, nothing. We don't need a comp, we're all fairly well to do and aren't looking for discounts, but you can't offer a simple "i'm sorry every aspect of our service was a nightmare for you" to us? Who owns this restaurant? Because this is clearly corporate culture and starts from the top down.

So let's review. Incompetence? Check. Disorganized? Check. Lack of accountability for staff? Check. And most egregious, poor quality of food leading to sickness? MAJOR CHECK.

AVOID THIS RESTAURANT! EVERYTHING ABOUT IT IS A MESS. DON'T POTENTIALLY RISK A BACTERIAL SICKNESS BECAUSE THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT CLIENTELE. You have no business being in the restaurant business, much less the food...

Refreshing. Delicious. Urban Chic.

My boyfriend and I both have a fondness for rooftop atmospheres, which is how we discovered The Watch. Hidden behind a gated entryway near a market and a small fountain, we found the elevator and headed for the top floor. Luckily, we arrived around 5pm-ish on the Monday a week prior to Memorial day, so they were able to accompany us as walk-ins for a two-top on the roof.

Our waitress was Marilee who was an absolute sweethart. Little things like bringing us plates and napkins before we even needed them or asked are the subtle acts that I appreciate so greatly. Funny enough, she asked if I was in the food&bev industry myself, to which I said yes, since I was 17, or about 5 years before Covid. Anyhow, I only mention this because as soneone with a server/bartender background, I tend to notice the smaller details. When I say she was amazing, I absolutley mean it.

Anyhow, for drinks my bf got the signature Moscow Mule and I got a drink they call R&R. Both were incredibly well balanced and I really enjoyed the unique mix of rhubarb and mint in mine. Never heard of a drink like it, so I figure I would give it a try. It did not dissapoint. For our second round, we both got From the Ashes, another unique mix of flavors.

For food, we split the truffle fries and charcuterie board as an app. We were pleasantly surpried how full the basket of fries was, and as he had never had him in that style before, he found them to be his new favorite. We also both loved the added touch of pickled okra on the board.

Afterwards, we split the crab cake entree which were about $30. Now, both of us having experience living in Maryland, we dont care to spend the money as long as the crab cakes arent just breading. We were not dissapointed. Not only were they made of actual crab meat, but they were surprisingly large. Perfectly cooked and a great end to our meal. (We wouldve gotten dessert but were so stuffed).

Anyway, of course I called the manager to compliment the service and chef. His name now escapes me, but I remember he was young with dark curly hair.

In conclusion, this is a must-visit spot and am so happy to...