Fire To Table — Restaurant in Garden City

Our family of 3 was really looking forward to eating here. Had a 6:30 reservation. We sat on outside porch. After we ordered and were waiting a bit, she told us kitchen was shorthanded. Ok, a little wait. Took an hour to get 2 of our 3 appetizers. While tasty, very small for price. Then told it would be another 40 minutes for our meals. Waitress who was so sweet and kept drinks filled, told us owner/manager was going to talk to tables. We decided we were done not wanting to wait another 40 or so minutes. Owner talked to large table next to us for quite a bit ( larger party with kids there before us). But walked past us twice never pausing. Our server brought our bill and we paid. As getting up the manager yelled that he had our third appetizer ( wings) and we told him we were leaving as we didn’t want to wait. This was 15-20 minutes after first appetizers came to our table. He just made a huff sound and went inside. Never spoke to us.

Edit to add: yes I said above manager walked past us several times to talk to other tables, but you did not stop at ours. Our server said she asked you to. I did see you bring slushies as you walked by.

As far as you saying our food was ready. When our 2 appetizers were delivered and we were told another 40 minutes for meals, we told our server IF our food was not being prepared to cancel our orders. More than 15 minutes later is when we stood up to leave, and you said you had our wings ( the third app) . You did not mention meals. We had also already paid. Somewhere there were definitely break downs in communication. We would not have paid and left if we were told food was ready as we did ask. We were being told another 40 minutes for dinner. After over an hr wait.

Being told they were short staff and being slow is one thing, waiting 1 1/2 hrs for sandwiches and mac n cheese is another.

You seating huge groups should be taken into account and should not take more reservations or seat more, as they will get poor service since you couldn’t keep up. That should not be on customers “knowing better” .

Owner, your communication should have been better. Being friendly to others is great, but you let others fall through cracks, and our experience was the result. Server repeatedly apologized, not her fault and we felt badly for her.

Anyway, can only review the shrimp/grits poppers and egg rolls, but very good but small portions. Server (Addie) excellent Wait times, communication etc horrid. Owner, poor customer service from your end. And you make your servers look bad and loose customers. And if your kitchen can’t keep up, stop seating tables. No photos of food as we were so hungry we ate fast lol This is only pics I took.

Not a 1 star since we liked the...

I have to admit, I've been sleeping on this spot since it opened maybe two gears ago! It was bought out around the end of 2023, and I still failed to get by until tonight.

Thursday night in July at th beach after a rainy, gloomy day. 7pm arrival. Not available tables, which was expected - I'm no fool.. I'm a 30-year resident of the beach, and my friends wanted to eat here, so this is where we were going, retakes m regardless of any wait/ etc. It's peak season in a vacation town for cryin' out loud!

We opted to sit at the bar - and they offer two, by the way - one upstairs , one down. (we were upstairs) The bartender was cordial and extended prompt and friendly service. Drinks came with a quickness, and the food wasn't far behind!

Because I had eaten shortly before arriving, I chose the smoked gouda Mac and cheese, which I found very tasty. The girls had the ham n Swiss with pineapple horseradish coleslaw and the smoked turkey club with potatoe salad. They devoured them both, noting the excellent flavors both had.

I noticed several desserts coming out of the window (the kitchen is immediately behind the bar) and, as a result, we all decided to get a dessert so we should share them all.... they loved the banana pudding, but I wasnt a fan. The lava cake was great and the peanut butter pie was extremely good... so much so that I asked what an entire pie would cost!

It was at that time that we met an operating partner/ owner, Al. Crazy nice fella from Long Island. Turns out that he and my friends were very familiar with places and businesses in PA. They talked for maybe 30 minutes, mainly because Daniele has no off switch, but the conversation was very engaging, welcoming, and - honestly, refreshing!

Bottom line... I'll be back for my another review as I really want to have the ribs because some of the pictures have really piqued my interest in them coupled with the fact that I had another friend that was there tonight who advised that they were the best ribs he's EVER had.... and this particular friend is somewhat a foodie, like myself. That's plenty good enough for me!

Bottom line? Decent location. Good service. Good food. Awesome engagement by an owner. Will I go back? Would I recommend to a friend or a stranger? ...

Thought we would try the restaurant after reading about it on Google. The restaurant is located up the stairs in the second floor... We didn't see any kind of sign saying go upstairs but we figured it out. We ordered the heaping pastrami sandwich with tots as a side and a bourbon brown sugar ham sandwich with fries... Sounds great. The pastrami was very good but no deli mustard available and definitely wasn't a heaping amount of meat. The ham sandwich tasted ok but was a letdown. What was expected was a hot sandwich not a cold sandwich. The sandwich was similar to something we would throw together from the refrigerator for the kids, like Boars Head cold cuts on a Kaiser roll...boring, like a Subway sandwich. Tots were ok, fries were good. Cole slaw was a tiny bit of slaw not even enough to make a taste judgement. When ordering we inquired about the Grandma Ethel's potato salad ingredients. The waiter said they bring the potato salad in and it probably has butter and milk in it. I thought that was strange that they buy premade potato salad but then on the menu they call it Grandma Ethel's. The waiter suggested instead we order the potato tots which we did. The bill comes later and surprised us with a charge of $3 for potato tots. The sides are supposed to be Free. We asked the waiter about this mistake on the bill and he said "Sorry the tots are an extra charge". Why did the waiter not tell us that it would be an extra charge? I think our waiter works by commission trying to add upcharges rather than taking care of the customers in an honest way. I told him that we wouldn't have ordered it if he told us it was an extra charge. He says he was sorry but it's extra. Pay by credit card for an extra 3% fee. The meal was a disappointment. After leaving we felt bamboozled when we shouldn't have. We eat out frequently, mistakes can happen but fix your mistake and make it into a good experience. There are hundreds of restaurants in the area. Unfortunately we wouldn't be recommending this restaurant for many reasons and will not...