ECHO St. Simons — Restaurant in Georgia

I should have known before we checked into the hotel something was off with Echo. I called before check-in to make a dinner reservation for outdoor dining for our arrival night, was told the restaurant wasn’t taking any more reservations for that evening. I asked if there are any tables left open without reservations for hotel guest walk-ins, the hostess said all outdoor dining is first come first served which was contradictory to the previous sentence’s information. So last night we walked up to the podium and asked for an outdoor table, the hostess said they’re all full, I asked how long the wait would be, she replied the party ahead of us has been waiting 45 minutes and hadn’t been seated yet. So we said ok we’ll eat inside, we were hungry. I pointed to the dining room which was then empty with the exception of two tables and asked if we could sit there at a table with a water view. The hostess replied that room is for guests with reservations, I explained that I had tried to make reservations, might there please be a table available for my party of 2? She said yes, swept her arm across the nearly empty dining room and asked where we’d like to sit, odd question when the room was only for guest with reservations and it was implied they were fully committed for the evening. The dining room was so cold! It stayed that cold throughout dinner, despite multiple requests by other diners to make it warmer. We ordered the cheese plate of “local artisan cheese”, which turned out be three not local cheeses with an unimaginative presentation and straight from a grocery store box crackers. The very friendly server placed the board down, said she’d get more crostini and crackers, more of the eh crackers came, but sadly no crostini. The pimento cheese hummus and crostini were very good, the rest of the pricey platter missed the mark. The juice of cut melon on the board quickly made the crackers soggy and coated the bottom of the cheeses. (definitely would best to put cut fruit in a separate bowl, not on a slate board) For our mains, we ordered the grouper tacos and scallops. The overcooked scallops were cold on a small strip of undercooked couscous, the tomato “foam” was liquid pooling at the outer edge of the plate. After another person delivered our dinner, we didn’t see our server again-not to ask us how the food was, ask if we wanted another drink or fill our water glasses. We tried to catch any server’s eye, but no luck as the dining room started to fill up. In fairness, the restaurant looked understaffed. In hopes of making the scallops more palatable, I finally went to the counter where someone was folding napkins to get salt. After that our server then came over and asked about the food, I asked if the scallops were supposed to be cold, she said the scallops are supposed to be hot and the couscous and cucumber under them were intended to be cold. She then offered to take the scallop plate which I appreciated. She didn’t refill empty water glasses or ask if we wanted another drink, so that combined with just saying she would take the dish caused me to assume she meant she was taking the price of the scallop dish off our check, which I thought was a good way to right a bad dish. We were anxiously waiting for the check, my dining companion had long finished eating the taco dish (which she said were good) we had no water or drinks to sip and we needed to get out of the really cold dining room. Then unexpectedly, the server bought over another order of the scallops, I don’t why she thought I would try them again or want to eat when my dinner companion had long finished. If she had said she would have the dish recooked, I would have said not to. I paid the check with the uneaten scallop dish charge and thought Oh well, I’ll put them in the room fridge and eat them sometime during our short stay. I just opened the fridge to have stem, discovered the fridge isn’t cold and am throwing out the scallops (and a grouper taco.) Overall disappointing restaurant, host, server, food and...

I just want it to be known that I have never left a review or a negative one at least. We were in St Simons this past weekend because my husband had surgery on Friday and since we are good friends with the owner of Simone, we were staying there. Saturday morning, my husband wasn’t feeling well plus we had already missed breakfast at Simone so we decided to go to Echo due to its convenience and having a newborn makes it even more difficult getting around. Upon our arrival to The King and Prince, I was pleasantly surprised that the place wasn’t packed at all and no one was waiting to be seated. We had the option of going straight to the hostess stand but being that we had a stroller and my husband in severe pain, we chose to go down the wheelchair ramp and wait just down the stairs for the hostess to seat us. Mind you it was less than 10 feet from the stand. Right away I knew something was strange. The hostess saw us standing there waiting and decided to circle the restaurant, shuffle the menus and carry on a conversation with 2-3 other employees. During this time, another lady walked up to the the hostess stand to make reservations for that evening. The hostess completely ignored us who had been patiently waiting for several minutes and proceeded to tend to the lady who had just walked up. We were obviously frustrated so my husband, wobbled his way up the stairs to grab the hostess’ attention. When she finished making the reservation, my husband said “yes, we…” and she immediately turned her back to him and walked away without saying a word! He looked at me in shock by her rudeness. We watched her again, walk around the restaurant, shuffle more menus, talk to more employees before she completely disappeared. We were so confused. I thought “maybe we’re supposed to seat ourselves.” We shrugged it off and proceeded through the bar area and out to the patio. We sat for a while and when the hostess walked past, my husband said nicely “I’m sorry, we decided to seat ourselves because there was no sign and we were confused.” She then rolls her eyes and angrily says “it’s ok this time but next time you better come to the hostess stand for me to seat you.” My husband replied “I was at the stand and you walked away.” She shook her head in frustration and continued to scold us. You could tell she was not happy at all but said she would get us some utensils and menus. We sat there for about 10 minutes and decided to leave. She was obviously trying to prove her point more by not returning. We walked past her on our way out and she asked if we were leaving to which she replied “Ok then!” She shrugged her shoulders and rolled her eyes. Upon our return to Simone, the lady at the front desk saw that we were frustrated. She kindly warmed us some biscuits, poured us some OJ and even offered to make us some fresh breakfast to which we declined. The hostess at Echo could clearly learn some hospitality from the folks at Simone or get out of the food industry which mainly consists of serving people. Unlike my usual self, I remained calm and didn’t lash out in anger. I had spent all morning pumping breast milk and getting my newborn and husband ready for the day. I was already upset because I was missing my 1 year old who was back home 5 hours away. All I wanted was a mimosa and to get some food on my husbands stomach. Next time I know to go to Palmers Village. I gave this review a 1 star because the company I work for blocks off all the rooms at the King and Prince every December for our Christmas party and the service is...

THREE STRIKES Let me put this out there first. I'm not a fan of poor reviews. If you examine all the reviews I've done, very few are uncomplimentary. That being said, this is kind of a traveler beware deal. We stayed at King and Prince for our 30th anniversary. The resort is SUPER! The location, the service, the atmosphere, almost everything! Almost with the exception of this restaurant. We're not "dining snobs" and don't expect much to be happy, but this place kinda underperformed even by our standards. This place really drags K&P down. Meal 1 - lunch... we go up to the host stand... and... we wait... and... we wait. Eventually a young man comes to get us and gives us a story about hostesses that called in... and busboys that called and quit... and waitresses that just didn't show up... We get to a table. We got our food, but gave up on getting the lemons for the water or the glasses refilled. At one point, we weren't sure if we'd ever get a check or if the meal was some sort of freebee. Meal 2 - dinner (we had reservations so...)... seated quickly so things were looking up! Then, here we go... waiter kinda went AWOL for long periods of time. You guessed it... In some places we eat at like chain steak houses, all 12,964 Mexican restaurants in the US, and I don't know... The Waffle House :-), empty glasses mean PLEASE COME BACK! WE'RE THIRSTY AND HAVE MONEY! Not here... Maybe there's a secret sign we didn't learn to display. Day 2 - Breakfast... When checking in they reminded us that breakfast was ONLY SERVED until 10:30. It actually became a little bit of a joke because we heard it from multiple people and there were emphatic! I'd love to know the story about that! Anyway, we get up. Do the watch the sunrise thing. Decide to have breakfast. "Hey - it's 7:30! Better get down there while they're still serving breakfast!" :-) HERE WE GO! Stood at the unmanned host station for a time. Saw employees busily moving around, and cleaning, and checking tables, but not a single person even spoke to us. We thought maybe the hours were wrong so we went and sat at one of the little lounging tables for a few minutes and just observed. This place has a SERIOUS MANAGEMENT PROBLEM! You know how you go to places and there's that atmosphere of happy employees and a general feeling of being a good place to work? Yeah - you don't see it on their employee's faces and the service shows it. Now we get why people call in, and quit, and just don't show up. That morning we left and found Mallery's... never to dine at Echo again, so in a way this all helped us out. If you're still reading... DO THAT! You'll be happy you did. Get off stage... We WILL return to King and Prince. We will NOT return to Echo. Oh - the quality of the food you ask? Does it matter...