ON20 — Restaurant in Hartford

I have been eating out in fine restaurants, both in the U.S. and throughout Europe, for many years. Eating out, after all, is my favorite pastime. As in most fine restaurants, there is never a need to write a negative review. They overwhelmingly meet my three important requirements of (1) excellent food with creative presentation design, (2) tasteful ambiance, and (3) professional and attentive service. It is particularly helpful if the service is knowledgeable in the areas of both wine and food. All three of those requests are of equal importance to me.

My recent experience at ON20 on 21 April 2016, however, requires me to write a review that I hope is taken seriously as I found that two things greatly upset me and I strongly feel they should be unacceptable to any potential customer.

I am not complaining about the food, service, or ambience. All three were superb and worthy of high commendation. What I found most disturbing was the ON20 policy of automatically placing a 20% surcharge in lieu of a tip on your bar tab, and then again on your dinner bill. I could not believe this and called over the bartender, hostess, and manage to object. They all were polite and seemed to sympathize with my objections. Nevertheless, they said that there was nothing that they could do because it was the company's policy. I find it hard to believe that a manager does not have the authority to override such a foolish policy. Firstly, it is insulting to the customer. It seems to imply that they do not trust the customer to tip 20%. For me, as well as my dining partner, we customarily tip between 20-30%, sometimes even more when the aforementioned requirements are exceptional. Knowledgeable customers should respect fine restaurants and dress well, act well, and tip well when visiting those establishments. Automatically charging 20% will insure that not a cent above 20% will ever be given to the waiter/waitress after that insult. I wonder if ON20 actually gives their servers the full 20% of the "surcharge"? The hostess also tried to tell me that all the top restaurants in New York City do that. I responded by saying that we were not in New York City and that I've been to virtually every top ten restaurant in NYC from Le Bernardin, to Daniel, to Le Cirque, to Petrossian, to Jean-Georges, to Eleven Madison Park, to Aquavit. NONE of them automatically put a 20% tip on your bill.

The second and more important issue was that the customer should evaluate the service and not the restaurant. I WISH TO DECIDE what the appropriate tip should be in any restaurant from 5 Star establishments to local diners. This policy I can see at large parties or weddings, but certainly not for two people dining out on a normal weekday. What would happen if the service was poor? Would they reduce the surcharge?

Finally, the tasting menu that we ordered was not representative of the various foods that they serve at ON20. Normally, the reason for a "tasting menu" is to give the customer a sampling of the various specialties of the establishment. Our tasting menu was 8 courses of all fish items! Shouldn't it have been a percentage of meat, fish, and other items? Since we had already opened a fine bottle of St. Emilion - a red Bordeaux, that blew any hope of matching any one of the 8 courses that were included in the tasting menu.

The answer of course is when you order the tasting menu; you are at the mercy of those who decide your courses. Fish items, though excellent, are higher profit items than meat courses. They took full advantage of our trust in them.

Like I said previously, my complaints are not directed toward the food quality, ambiance, or service. All of those were superb. It is against that very foolish policy that would prevent me from ever going there again and I hope that other potential customers will consider this point of view. I invite the owners to contact me at anytime to discuss...

The service was pathetic for a fine dining standard, 1 guy ran all around served at all the tables, no one asked if food came out good, in fact in 1.5 hours we were only served drinks, starter and main then were asked to wait until after fireworks, which was to start in 20 min. Rudest of all, someone called prior to our arrival to say we will have to leave by certain time as they are fully booked for fireworks and then later their service was so poor we ended up watching fireworks from there. They didn’t even give us a window seat, there were 2 vacant up until 20 min prior to fireworks. If they are charging everyone equally then why not give seats on first come basis. Overall I went there to celebrate my hubby bday but server was not courteous to even wish him happy bday after knowing. Forget about expecting a good dessert. Most fine dine restaurants the experience is different and they make you feel special. They had nothing to offer. They charged us 20% gratuity for a party of 2 for this pathetic service, also nowhere stated or told. Although Food was good, some art work there but their menu is very limited and portions are very small. They served us a regular menu where starter and main dish was $11 each but they charged us $75 at the end. Our server didn’t say anything regarding that at the start. Also included was a dessert buffet for which we had to wait almost an hour as fireworks was starting in 20 min and we had to self serve after that, who self serves in fine dining restaurant. The point is you can keep whatever price in the restaurant but your menu and service should be up...

Very friendly staff, even had us for drinks at the bar after with them. Great people. I feel bad for the 3-stars but the food was not what I expected.

We did the tasting menu with wine pairing.The wines were good and I did like a few of the 8 courses.

One course was escargot. Typically tiny snails smothered in garlic and butter in the classic French preparation. These snails were HUGE. They were served with charred pearl onions in a burnt onion sauce. The snails were a quite chewy and tasted like a pond, not sure where they were going with the accompaniments but I couldn't eat more than one bite. The foie gras was served cold and such a large portion I couldn't finish it. Rich protein dish after rich protein dish came out without a balance. I appreciate if the chef was trying to "hook us up" but I would have liked some variety.

Again, great staff and a few really good dishes. I just think the kitchen should have the tasting menu tell a story or have a rhythm, rather than just trying to impress with rich animal proteins.

Thanks again for the...