Wheatfields Restaurant and Bar — Restaurant in City of Saratoga Springs

I'm probably rating atmosphere a little low because it irks me to give this restaurant anything positive after tonight's experience. The food, I will concede, was excellent. Our service was absolutely horrible. The restaurant was recommended by someone working in a shop across the street. We checked the menu and decided to try it out. There were four of us, and we weren't in a terrific hurry. We got seated fairly quickly. Two of us ordered wine and one ordered a soda. I stuck with water. Everyone else was ready to order right away, so we did, and I figured it out by the time it came to me. Then we sat and chatted. We didn't notice the time passing at first. It was a congenial group. Eventually though, the one of us who is diabetic did realize that a lot of time had passed. We flagged down our waitress who had never come back after taking our order. She said she would check on our meal and it should only be a few minutes. It wasn't a few minutes. Eventually she stopped by our table again and sort of sheepishly said the manager was coming to talk to us. We guessed maybe our order had been lost and one of us asked if we were about to get a free meal, almost as a joke. But then more time passed and neither waitress nor manager came. Finally, after we'd been sitting at the table for an hour and people who had been seated well after us were at least midway through their meals, we started debating walking. The difficulty with that was that we were by this point very hungry and no one wanted to start all over at another restaurant. We finally flagged down another waitress, who was not our waitress, but was clearly familiar with whatever was going on, who said the manager was coming. We told her we were about to walk out and magically the manager appeared within a minute. He said our ticket had indeed been lost and he was going to comp our meals. He offered everyone another round so the person with the soda ordered another and the two who'd ordered wine ordered second glasses. We asked if these would be comped as well and he said "anything you want." He turned and disappeared before I had a chance to say anything at all. Someone else came and brought the additional drinks, and I asked for a glass of wine, which I received. Although the manager said the food would be out in a few minutes, it was more like another 15 minutes before it finally arrived. And I can't complain about the food. Everyone of us loved our meal. Our waitress did assist with the serving, and as we ate we debated the whole tipping issue. We agreed that it wasn't the waitress's fault that this had happened. We also agreed the waitress hadn't been very aware of or attentive to our table, and it took us asking after a really long wait to get things moving. We felt badly for the role of servers everywhere who are underpaid and frequently treated terribly. But at the same time we felt our waitress had completely disappeared rather than trying to assist and make things better. She did come most of the way through our meal and asked if everything was okay and if we needed anything. Two of us said we would need boxes. She disappeared again. Eventually we flagged down a busboy and asked for boxes, which he brought. We decided to each give $5 for a total $20 tip, which was fairly close to what 20% would have been if we'd paid for the meal. But here's the thing. We were getting a meal we'd expected to spend money on for free. If we'd had decent service we could have easily tipped at a 50 or 75% rate and still have saved money. As we were getting up to leave our waitress arrived with a bill for one soda and one glass of wine. My glass of wine, presumably, and who knows why the soda was an extra charge. In retrospect it kills me that I paid for the wine instead of arguing the point. At the moment, having been trapped in the place for over two hours, I just wanted to be free. Good as the food was I would...

The food is original and tasty. The dining room is comfortable, although the music (Sinatra?) was a bit over the top for lunch. The wait staff is nice to look at if you run out of things to discuss with your table partners. Our visit started before the lunch rush. Server Steve took our drink order, which included iced tea and a Coke with little ice. He brought back a Coke with little ice and an iced tea with no ice at room temperature. Steve took our food orders. After half an hour, during which time neither Steve nor anyone else came to the table, one of the managers came to tell us that my pizza had slid to the floor, they were making a new one, it would be five minutes, and dessert would be on the house. We had to stop the manager from leaving to ask for bread to tide us over. We got the bread and some garlicky herb butter promptly. Our lunch arrived about five minutes later, brought by a server who did not give us his name. He asked if we wanted crushed pepper or grated Parmesan cheese on our food. I asked for cheese on my pizza, which he promptly brought. My husband realized that his shoestring potatoes were cold. After a couple of minutes, I got the attention of the same manager that had been to the table before and asked whether the fries were supposed to be stone cold. She said no and promised to bring hot ones. After about five minutes, she did. By then, my iced tea glass was nearly drained. She didn't ask if I wanted more nor did she ask if we needed anything else. We finished our meal without seeing Steve, the server who brought the food, or the manager come to ask us how everything was or to re-fill my iced tea. Someone removed our plates. Steve swung by with the dessert tray. We said we didn't want anything. He said we could have it to go, so I asked for a slice of cheesecake. My husband went to the restroom and left me money to pay the bill. After about five minutes, I caught the attention of Server Eric and asked him to find someone who could help us get the hell out of the restaurant. Eric laughed and walked away. My husband returned from the restroom. There was no one in sight coming toward our table to bring our check or the cheesecake. We got up and went to the maitre'd's podium. The woman at the next table said she was glad they weren't the only ones. A female server at the podium spoke to my husband, who asked for the manager. I went to the restroom to avoid losing my temper, telling a female manager I was furious on the way. When I returned from the restroom, my husband had the cheesecake and was finishing talking to the male manager. I overheard this manager say that the restaurant prided itself on its service. Apparently, he has no idea how offensive that is to say to someone who has just told him he has been neglected and...

Wheatfields had been a favorite of ours for many years and we made a dinner reservation a week in advance for our wedding anniversary. We let them know we were driving from Syracuse and that we would have our dog with us and they assured us their outdoor seating is dog friendly.

After noon on the date of our reservation, after were in Saratoga, they called to tell us that their outdoor seating is first come, first served (ie no reservations) and since they don’t allow dogs inside, if there were no tables outside when we arrived we would be out of luck. One would think they could accept an outside reservation if they know you have a dog since it’s your only option , or not accept a reservation in the first place if they know you have a dog.

We arrived early to try to get a table and there was a four person table in the outside area with a “reserved” sign on it, so so apparently some people can reserve outdoor tables.

They seated us at a table in full sun even though there were tables available in the shade and we had our dog. We ordered drinks but before we ordered food it was clear it was too hot for our dog (it was 85 degrees in the shade and we were in full sun). By that time the other tables were full.

When the waitress came to take our food order we told her it was too hot for our dog and we weren’t going to order food. She then told their policy is that you MUST order food if you sit outside. At that point I’d had it and said “well I’m not going to order food - what are you going to do about it?” She replied that she would talk to her manager, left and never cane back, leaving us sitting in the hot sun for another 15 or 20 minutes.

We finally got her attention when she was waiting on another table and she said they decided they would let us sit for a while, but she never told us that and never brought the check. Meanwhile we and our dog are baking in the sun. We asked for the check, paid for our drinks and left to find someplace with shade to have dinner.

I’m sorry to say I will never return to Wheatfields. They made no effort to accommodate customers and gave no thought to customer service. It was the worst dining experience I’ve...