Fig & Tomato Italian European Eatery — Restaurant in Hillsdale

Updated to include a conversation with the arrogant owner, who takes no responsibility and offers no apology. On Friday, April 29th at 8:00 pm I brought a party of 26 in for a wedding rehearsal dinner. This reservation was secured three months in advance, in January 14th and the time slot was based on your availability, not mine. I secured the reservation with a $250 deposit on January 17th and was in regular contact with Annie up to and including the day of our party. As the mother of the groom I was embarrassed and disappointed, to put It mildly. On this cold, rainy evening, we arrived at 8 pm and were told to wait in the tiny vestibule while your team was “working on it.” After about 30 minutes, I took a walk to the back to see three active tables of patrons in the area that was supposed to be reserved for my party. My guests continued to stand waiting for a full hour before we were seated at 9 pm. In fact, four of my guests left before being seated, as two were elderly and two got claustrophobic while waiting. Soon after dinner was cleared, Annie came over to my table and stared at me silently for an uncomfortable number of minutes. I’m not sure what that was about, but she offered no apology, no recognition of the catastrophe, and certainly not any reparations on the invoice. In fact, she had the audacity to add a 22% gratuity to the tip, which was manually hand-written on the itemized bill.) The guests I hosted at your establishment expected a delightful, if not exceptional experience. As you can imagine, with a wedding held at the Florentine Gardens, this crowd is used to excellent food and exceptional service. If the food at Florentine Gardens is rated a 10 (and it was a 10+ for us), the food at Fig & Tomato was a 6 at best, and the horrific experience brought it to a zero. Your restaurant came highly recommended and your reviews are very good, but now I can understand that those reviews likely came from individual diners whose cooks and waiters were not trying to move a crowd of people out of the restaurant at such a late hour. We were charged for 28 dinners, while only 26 were served. As I mentioned above, four of our guests couldn’t tolerate the wait and the waiting conditions. What an embarrassment. We would have been better served at...

I called last Tuesday to make a reservation for this Saturday night,July 30th, for dinner, a six o’clock reservation, we were celebrating our 45th wedding anniversary and were very excited to try this new restaurant. We were in the city to see a show and then we were coming to eat at the Fig and Tomato, we were stuck in traffic so I called ahead to tell them that we would be 15 minutes late and the woman that answered the phone said “no problem we’ll hold the table for you”. We arrived at 6:15 pm like we said we would and were told that there was no table for us( I had specifically asked to eat outside because we didn’t want to be inside), even though we were assured that we would be seated when we arrived. When we asked why, we were told one thing and then told another the manager said “ we’re human and we make mistakes”! They had over booked the restaurant which wasn’t our fault and it ruined what was a very nice day. We were looking forward to a good dinner to top off our anniversary! She was so rude and just kept saying that they made a mistake! She was not interested in helping to accommodate us or find a solution! I became a little upset because I have worked in customer service and I would have NEVER treated a client like she did!! She just turned her back on us and walked away. Not a way to treat potential repeat customers at all!! She should not be managing anything and she should not be involved with people! We love the Cork and Crust restaurant and when we heard that they opened The Fig and Tomato we were delighted because it’s in our neighborhood but because of the way we were treated by this “manager” we will not be going to either restaurants! We ended up calling the restaurant down the street and they were more than accommodating to us! So as far as we’re concerned if a negative number of stars could be given to this restaurant they would get that for their poor customer service and for the horrible manager running it! We never got to taste the food so can’t really say...

So we used to love this place. We have hosted parties and have gathered with friends and family. That changed tonight. Food is wonderful. Service used to be amazing.

It was an honest local great BYOB. Unfortunately tonight that changed. May this be a warning CHECK YOUR BILL.

We had reservations outside. Ordered and got apps / kids meals relatively quickly. It was a busy night. Order for kids was wrong but they quickly corrected. So far so good. About an hour and forty five minutes later entrees came. I get it busy so far all good. Kids got dessert as we ate dinner.

Then we go to settle up. The bill looked higher than expected so I actually checked. 3 of the line items were charged a few dollars More than the menu price. I mentioned it to the waitress and she said oh I’ll adjust it. Something about her response while solving the problem left me uneasy so I asked for the manager.

When he arrived he stated we changed the prices a week ago we must have missed a menu. So we adjusted your bill. Now reading him it still felt off so I thanked him but pressed and asked to see a menu with the correct prices. He came back a little later with his business partner on the phone blaming his printer.

I get it mistakes happen however, they overcharge and seemed too okay with it. They shifted their story while saying the right words of I’m sorry they didn’t seem to really own the problem.

So, watch your bill here and I am not planning on returning. Which honestly sucks because we have had some awesome times with friends and family at this establishment.

Brass tax here. If I was the first to notice this issue and they sit 100-200 covers a night it would equate to $500-1000 a night for the owners dishonestly or by error. Now the manager stated they changed the prices the other week. I am super surprised that I would be the first to...