Catbird — Restaurant in Dallas

2/14/21 the manger called me personally to offer apologies and to invite my partner and I back in for another dining experience. It was clear she cares a lot about the restaurant and how it takes care of its patrons. Given our first experience, we’re not jumping at the chance to give it another shot, but may here soon given the sincerity of the manger. Gotta give her props for the call.

2/7/21 Dining here was amongst the worst restaurant experiences I've ever had.

I made a reservation a couple days before dining for 7pm. When we arrived, we were quickly seated. We sat and were quickly served waters, but sat waiting for 20 minutes without any other attention when we were approached by a gentleman that he was the General Manager. He told us the restaurant had a private event he needed us to leave before 8:30pm. We told him we hadn't ordered. He said to decide what we wanted and he would be back in one minute. After another 20 minutes of not having a waiter and the GM not returning, the gentleman pouring our water asked how we were enjoying everything. We told him we hadn't ordered. He apologized and quickly asked if we wanted to order anything. We did and when we tried to order food, he told us the kitchen was closed already for the private event. We explained we had been waiting to order for some time and he said he would see what he could do. So we put in a couple apps and drinks and sure enough he made it work, because our food and drink showed up some 20 minutes later. The same gentleman that became our waiter dropped off a check at some point, but then we saw him leave the restaurant. The lights then came all the way up and they turned off the music completely. We then sat there for another 20 minutes for someone to come run our check while we watched other tables go equally neglected while the staff that hadn't left when our waiter (was he our waiter even?) left walk around but no one was helping anyone any patrons close out, even though it was clear they were dying for us to leave. Eventually the GM came back and ran our check. We left as soon as we could.

In essence, I have never felt so utterly unwanted at a restaurant, as if we were an inconvenience to them.

Why were we not informed of the "private event" when we made reservations? How is the restaurant so mismanaged that we never had a waiter? How is it that the first thing we hear from anyone is that we need to hurry through dinner, only to then be neglected?

I would give this place another shot because perhaps this was just a really bad experience, but it was clear that most other diners were having some level of uncomfortable and confusing experience as well. It was easy to see it on their faces with the lights completely up, as we all sat there clearly unwelcome but captive to our unpaid bills.

Final notes unrelated to experience. Food: 2/5 It's good, but just about above average. No one with any decent experience with dining out will leave here thinking they had anything revelatory. Ambiance: 4/5 Definitely a well-designed space with a lot of attention to detail in the hardware, decor, and tableware. Clubby vibe, don't come for intimate...

Fun spot for a date night or with a couple of friends, but after my last experience with a group event to celebrate our engagement, I would never plan anything here again. We reserved an outside seating area with the great view and enough flexibility for up to 20 or more people. A week before our event, they called to say someone wanted the whole patio and they'd give us a "private room" instead. Unfortunately this wasn't really a private room, it's a small hallway off the main room with no view and extremely cramped for more than about 10-12 people.

Additionally, unlike almost any other restaurant, they charge a $120 per person minimum for large parties rather than a room/table minimum. This meant that any of our guests who could only stop in for a short time to say congratulations, would still run up our overall minimum. Management agreed to not add people to our minimum if they were there less than 45 minutes, but it took at least that long for me to get my first drink once we got there. We had one server and she had a lot of other tables as well on a Saturday so the service was terribly slow. We had quite a few people who were there for 2 hours with only 1-2 drinks, yet the per person minimum stands. They only started asking about food when the kitchen was about to close, but because the room had no tables or anywhere to eat, it wasn't conducive to people wanting to order anything and find a way to awkwardly eat standing up shoulder to shoulder.

After 2 hours of very slow service and people starting to leave because it was cramped and we couldn't get drinks, we had barely scratched our group minimum. They finally assigned us another server and then sent over the bottle service person to just try to help us spend the other 2/3 of our minimum we still hadn't hit. This was a complete waste of money as no one there wanted bottles and people had already left. I would have ordered some high end drinks for everyone, but they don't really have much at the high end of their spirits collection. It was only a short while before the place closed anyway, so we just ordered bottles that sat there and gave some away to people. All in all this ended up being a huge disappointment on an otherwise fantastic night. We had to limit our invite list because of the per person policy and room change, then they refused to serve us in a timely manner so that we could even come close to hitting it. I don't mind spending money for events like this, but I certainly don't like just giving some place $2,000 or wasting it on things we didn't drink or want to order in the first place. And the view and decor of this place is a huge part of why to go, but we were blocked off in our little hallway without any of that.

I did previously reach out to management. I received one call back, which I returned, but then never heard...

Beautiful spot in Dallas but if going to celebrate a special event beware. A friend of mine suggested this spot for after dinner birthday drinks for a group of girls. Nine of us were there less than one hour and were charged $1738 for a round of drinks. My best friend was cornered as well as a few other guests on the patio and told we had a certain minimum to meet and suggested two bottles of regular orange label Veuve. My best friend was appalled at the lack of professionalism by the general manager and told her she would take the check and asked her to stop harassing the guests about “minimums”. She agreed to order the Veuve as the restaurant was closing soon and we had brought a birthday cake to celebrate. When the bill arrived the glasses full of the Veuve remained untouched. No one really drank them as we had just had a fabulous dinner and drinks at The Charles and we had all ordered our after dinner drinks at Catbird $298 total. The itemized receipt was taken before my best friend was able to see anything other than a $1738 total. She was trying to keep any scene from being made and signed the receipt adding on an addition $250 tip unaware gratuity had already been added!! When she told me about what happened I emailed the GM immediately and asked for itemized receipt and of course also a resolution. As it turns out they charged $550 for each bottle of Veuve. $1100 TOTAL. Veuve is not listed on their menu and friends went to Catbird a week later and tried to order Veuve (price checking) they were told it is not offered at Catbird which is consistent with it not being listed on any of their menus. I was later told by others they do very shady stuff in their bar area on the patio. They have been completely rude and unapologetic about all of this including their behavior that night. They made over $500 in gratuity in less than one hour! The place wasn’t crowded at all there were tables open everywhere. Never thought we would be scammed in a place like Catbird. Have never left a bad review for any business anywhere in my entire life but people need to be aware especially going there late night for drinks. So unfortunate and a total disappointment. I would’ve been completely OK with them letting us pay our $298 bar tab a reasonable market price a Veuve which should never be more than $160 anywhere and gratuity. This happened in August same management...