Farmshop — Restaurant in Larkspur

This is a 0 star review totally based on service. Four of us went to dinner Sunday May 4th at 6:00, Farm Shop being one of our favorite restaurants, a place we go to usually twice a month. This is an outline of our evening. 1- about an hour after taking our dinner order the waitress returned explaining that our order was never placed and asked for our order again. 2- the hamachi crudo finally came and was very fishy, not fresh 3- after presenting our table with the check and telling us she was not charging for the crudo, we asked her to split the bill 60%/40%, telling her which card to charge the 60%.. She returned the credit card receipts, and we found that the bill had been split 70%/30%, not 40%/60%, and the person who was supposed to get the smaller amount got the larger amount. 4- At this point I went to the manager, a woman, with dark hair, to correct the bill. The manager said that the waitress did not tell her on which card to run the 60%, so she chose one! I pointed out that the split was 70%/30%, not 60%/40% as requested, and then that our original order was lost - we had sat there for an hour before being asked for our order a second time, & that the crudo was fishy. After my explanation, she did not apologize, was not sympathetic to our experience, I said that the waitress should have at least comp’ed our drinks, or have even written off the dinner, as sitting for an hour and being asked for our order again was inexcusable. I was direct, expressive , the manager demanded I “put your hands down” (I talk with my hands) , was combative, and said “don’t talk to me”, tried to ignore me, further inflaming the situation. Here’s a restaurant that looses our order, bills it totally incorrectly and demands that I don’t talk to her! She didn’t take the offered credits cards to rerun the charges as i requested, and then blurted out that she’s not charging us for the dinner, which, by that point was not the point. I’ve never been treated like this by anyone. This manager was possibly the rudest person I have ever encountered. She repeatedly exacerbated the situation by refusing to deal with it. All she had to do was listen …. and...

Extremely rude and hostile customer service and manager - as witnessed by a group of 11 people who will not be back. Server made it difficult to sort out the bill among a large party. When a few individual members of our party tactfully tried to sort it out with the manager, she copped an attitude each time - server gave us 4 implicitly contradictory rules as to how the bill had to be divided - which led to a frenzy in our group lasting over an hour (without any help from staff). Manager became increasingly hostile each time we politely brought it to her attention that the situation wasn't resolved. *Manager then proceeded to have repeated hissy fits directed at the customers! None of us raised our voices or used abusive language in any way. No one asked for any freebees. We know how hard it is to work at a restaurant. But the situation wasn't our fault and the hostile treatment we received - including the patron celebrating a birthday - was egregious. Among the members of our party who tried to de-escalate the hostile female manager were a small framed 85 year-old woman who's extremely soft spoken and a seasoned psychotherapist who works with prison inmates. Ordinarily, if anyone can de-escalate a situation, they can. Regardless, the manager was completely out of line and did nothing useful to solve the problem. She yelled at us in a mean and unprofessional manner and stormed off multiple times. Add to it that the server never asked any of us how our food was, brought out appetizers and entrees simultaneously; the host was rude when 2 of us politely asked if the a/c could be adjusted (it was extremely warm in there as per reports from multiple patrons); and the person who took the reservation over the phone was standoffish. This was a lousy experience for a birthday party. The food here is decent, but nothing extraordinary for the Bay Area - particularly at this price point. Look on Yelp as there are multiple reviews citing poor customer service. Clearly Farmshop Larkspur has improvements to make. 11 Repeat Customers Were...

Ambiance. We visited on a Saturday night. The bar and restaurant were busy. One of the downsides of that is that the restaurant has hard ceilings so sound echos and the place is extremely noisy.

Bar service. Drinks run $18 for a mixed cocktail, which by any measure is outrageous for a suburban shopping center restaurant. A glass of mediocre wine is $16-20, and not a particularly large glass at that. Beer is $10 for a a ‘pint’ which appeared to be about 4oz short of a pint.

Food. Food was adequate but not exceptional. Other than the pizza, portions were small. I had a lamb entree, taste and seasoning was good but the portion was more like an appetizer. One of our group had the angry crab. Again taste was ok but portion was small for the price. Pizza had a soggy crust, ingredients were fresh but they seemed to forget how much water comes out of tomatoes when cooked. They don’t even provide bread for the table unless you buy it. The hitch is they charge more for a few pieces of bread than the cost of a full loaf of artisan bread.

Service. Service was the strongest point of the restaurant. Servers were attentive without being intrusive.

Summary: this restaurant seems to depend on its “vibe” but food is average quality and sub average quantity. I walked out feeling a ripped off. There are far better choices even...