Publico — Restaurant in Columbia

This place was suggested by my cousin (who is new in town but saw the reviews and really wanted to try it) we were there (SC) for our sons Basic Training graduation! We had 11 ppl, called for reservation, they said unless its over 20ppl, we didnt need one for 12noon on a wednesday.? We asked if it got super packed during Family Day/graduation? Said nope, that they normally stay closer to the base. I am telling you, its about 20-30min away from Ft.Jackson, take you family or new Soldier there for a treat!! It is a small establishment But the they were right, only like 2 or 3 ppl there when we arrived. The waiter, sweet guy with BRIGHT BLUE eyes, welcomed us, took all our orders. Now it is Mexican/Asian Fusion Food. My husband wanted to try the tacos--nice selection, but he wasnt sure what to get, so he asked the waiter to select HIS 5 favorite tacos for him to try!! Every one of them were great! My DIL ordered a Crab Salad Poki Bowl, another ordered birria tacos, korean hotchicken bao buns, and pork barbacoa bao buns!!! I tried a bite and omg! Whoever thought of this fusion...awesomeness! For appetizer we had chips trio (homemade chips with queso, Guacamole, and warm salsa) i had a Short rib bowl (had Latin rice (im particular about my rice, Puerto Rican, and THIS RICE..had all kinds of spice, top notch! And it was all topped with a fried egg! And I had a side of ripe plantains with some spicy sauce drizzled on top. Man oh man. Everything was so perfectly FUSED together...oh and that wasnt even my original order! I wanted the Chicken & Puffles!! But they were all out! Listen to this...thai marinated fried chicken thigh Hong Kong Uber inspired bubble waffle with chili oil drizzle, spicy maple syrup, and Jalapeño butter medallion topped with green onions and served with side of kimchi and plantains! Be still my heart!! If anyone gets this, please let me know if its as good as it sounds...Hopefully my cousin will call me as she is eating it so I can see it! The only part that was alittle sad was when my cousins husband realized that his birria tacos was (shredded pork) any other time they got birria it was shredded beef! It was on the menu bright as day--but was skimmed over by my cousin on accident. He can't eat pork (medical reason) he had already taken 1 bite and daughter told him she thinks its pork..and it was. Nothing bad happened, later probably, but I think it was that it was SO GOOD, and now he couldn't continue eating it! So he was sad!! Other then THAT..everyone LOVED their food, and you know what...I reheated mine in the hotel that night...and it was even better!!! Absurdly phenomenal! Thank you to the chef, and the bright blue eyed waiter who was so kind...

Short version: after years of hearing terrible stories about the service and food, but defending the restaurant, we will never be back. Cold food, decent server, incredibly rude manager.

Long version: Over the past five years, we’ve frequented the place in spurts; of course there have been some less than stellar moments, but never anything to turn us away—food always hit the spot. In that time, however, we’ve had a number of friends and acquaintances inform us about terrible service and food. We’ve defended the restaurant, as that was never our experience.

Today we stop by for a quick work-week lunch. It’s not busy, only five or so tables. We’re seated quickly and the waitress is attentive as she takes our drink orders.

Things begin to go downhill when 13 minutes later no one has taken our food order. The waitress finally comes by and we put in our food and let her know we’re in a bit of a hurry. She’s nice and accommodating.

Food comes relatively quickly, which is good. But it is ALL cold—and I mean cold. We’re in a hurry and are disappointed but figure things happen.

At this point, someone (I later learn the manger) comes up behind me and asks us if everything is okay. Both my partner and I are chewing, but I don’t want to be bothered so I give a thumbs up. The manager moves away. As she was leaving my partner tries to say to her “it would be nicer if my fries were hot.” The manager doesn’t appear to hear.

My partner has always loved these fries—she adores fries anytime, and these are usually a particularly good specimen. It’s a major disappointment that they are cold, and the more we move through the meal the more we realize how seriously sub-par it all is.

Again, we’re in a bit of a hurry so we don’t want to wait for more food, and we generally don’t like to cause any servers trouble. We know that life, and we’re on their side. But this is so bad that as we leave, my partner feels she really needs to say something, so asks for the manager.

The manager is, from the outset, very defensive. “Why did you not complain earlier, I came by.” She dismisses our complaint completely, and does not care when informed that we are now completely turned off Publico.

We did not want our money back or more food. We wanted to let a restaurant we like know that this experience was bad, so they could work to make sure that doesn’t happen to others. Oh well. Publico is off the...

Surprisingly disappointing. We have enjoyed Publico in the past but we will not return. There were only 4 other customers in the dining bar area when we arrived. Ordered drinks. Server came back to say they were out of the beer we chose. No big deal, we chose a new one. Also order the cauliflower bites and two of the taco platters with caeser salads. Server comes back to say they need to change the keg. No big deal so we wait. And we keep waiting and waiting. Finally after 15 minutes I go to the bar asking for our beer and bartender is very apologetic and kindly brings the beer to our table. Server reappears with our cauliflower bites. The cauliflower bites taste like old dirty fryer oil. So we just set them aside in hopes for taco platters. A couple is seated next to us. They order burgers. Time goes by and by and by and their burgers come out. Still no sign of our taco platters. Server comes twice to tell us some computer issue is delaying our platters. We continue waiting now reaching 45 minutes sine we ordered and the restaurant is still not busy. Finally our server emerges with our food. The caeser salads have no dressing. Just bowls of lettuce and croutons. The fried cod taco tastes like an old rubber tire. It’s cold and obviously been a long while since it was cooked. The short rib and all other tacos we ordered are also cold, tough, rubbery and unpleasant. We asked for our bill we paid our $80 bill for food we didn’t eat. We tipped our server well. Sure we could have asked for a manager, made a scene, not paid or who knows. But if there was a manager actually doing their job they should have approached us and managed the situation but clearly...