The Cellar Restaurant

Terrible restaurant and threatening customer experience. Having spent 30 years of my career in hospitality management I know how important it is to treat customers well and with respect. Last night my family and I had a very unfortunate and unacceptable experience at the Cellar in Fullerton.

First , We were not provided menus and had to wait over 15 minutes after asking and then receiving only one menu for a party of four. My cousin ordered a black label on the rocks and waited over 45 minutes for it having to remind the waiter a couple of times before receiving it.

Two of us split a salad which was only a few leaves of lettuce and nothing out of the ordinary. We waited over 40 minutes for appetizers which were very bland and not tasty.

After we had waited an additional 50 minutes for our entrées I had to ask the waiter how much longer the wait would be. He said that we didn’t know what fine dining was. That was a big insult to my cousin and I who are high-level business professionals And who frequently entertain our clients at fine dining restaurants throughout the world.

After finally waiting an hour we received our entrées one at a time. The steaks were cold and tough despite the steak that my wife and I had which was $98. The potatoes were very cold. I had asked for medium rare but it was well done and definitely not 16 oz as noted on the menu.

My cousins New York State was equally bad and was very cold . When we notified the waiter he just made excuses and was unwilling to redo the steaks without charging us for another round of steaks. I had only had two bites. At any other restaurant they would’ve either redone the steaks to satisfaction or offered another entrée.they did not offer a simple apology only excuses and insults.

We notified the waiter that we wanted the steaks redone but again he said he had to charge. We asked for the manager and this lady Monica Murphy came asking us again if we knew what fine dining was? When we asked about having our entrées re-done she said they would discount one steak by 20 percent but had to. Hardest for new ones. I’ve never heard of such a thing since it was not done satisfactory, was tough , Cold, and hardly edible. She made excuses for it being cold saying the steaks had to rest after being cooked.

. I was very surprised when the lady then said she was the manager because she was so rude and condescending and insulting to all of us. When my cousin complained she said she didn’t care. After all of that the most she could offer was a 20% discount on the one steak. We were not out for a free meal or discount what do you have an enjoyable experience that have been ruined. As the manager Monica continue to insult my cousin wife and his wife the waiter stood behind my cousin smirking at him. After my cousin asked for the bill which included $148 of wine another young waiter came up and was quite threatening to us ordering us to keep our voices down. The management and staff at that as though we were out of order and yet we were very polite and civil under the circumstances.

I have never witnessed such a terrible handling of a customer in my over 30 years in the hospitality business. It really was a reflection from management down to all the employees How they treated us as customers.

My wife and family are from Sri Lanka and felt that they were discriminating Against us because we are brown. They treated us as though we were out of order and made many nasty insults that were extremely condescending.

I am surprised that a restaurant that considered themselves fine dining could treat anyone like this without realizing the damage being done to its reputation just by word-of-mouth. We will certainly let all our friends and family in the area know about the unfortunate incident we had at the Cellar restaurant. It is also very unfortunate because my cousin who just bought a house nearby would likely have entertained many of our customers at the restaurant if we had had a positive experience there.