Arpeggio BYOB — Restaurant in Lower Gwynedd Township

REPLY TO OWNER'S RESPONSE First of all, I am really disappointed that you took 6 days to write a reply filled with excuses and no apology at all. As I mentioned already, your counter did not offer “no wait app” until the fourth time we went up to them, which was 1 hour and 20 minutes after we got there. We do understand busy restaurant’s wait time can be long, but it is not right when we are not seated even after everyone else who came after us are seated. You mentioned “We always seat in order of arrival, certainly not taking into consideration race, religion or political beleifs!” but it was not the case on August 18, 2018. We saw many families that came after us to put themselves in the wait list, but they all got seated. Most of them were group of four like us. You as an owner can say “In the past 23 years we have had the pleasure of serving a greatly diverse customer base, of which we are proud.” However, two girls at the counter did not care about diverse customer at all, rather they discriminated us. You were not there when we got discriminated, and you are mentioning ideal beliefs that do not currently exist in your restaurant. Receptionists are part of your restaurant, and you should feel responsible for their bad service. We are feeling even worse after reading your reply. It seems like you do not know how to apologize and reflect upon self. ORIGINAL REVIEW I went into the store at 6:30PM 8/18/2018, and two girls told us to wait 45-60 minutes. We waited 1 hour and 20 minutes, and something didn’t seem right as everyone got seated (even those who came in after us). We asked two girls few times to make sure that we are in the waiting list, and they repeatedly said we will be seated soon. After 1 hour and 20 minutes of watching groups getting escorted, we went up to those girls again to see why we are not getting seated, but everyone else is. They said there is an app where you can make an appointment, and those who sign up online has priority. First of all, they would tell us about online reservation after 1 hour and 20 minutes. They could have told us about it when we called for a reservation too, rather than just telling us that group of 7 or less people cannot reserve a table. Secondly, we are not stupid... it didn’t matter if parties behind us signed up online or at the desk like us... they all got seated. Only reason I can think of why we did not get seated is because we are Asian. This whole thing could have been better if they just told us that we are not allowed in their restaurant. Don’t be afraid to have a “No Yellow” sign on your entrance, because it is lot better than going through racism and discrimination . There are other restaurants that we could go and get treated fairly. Next time, you guys should at least warn other minorities that white people will be prioritized, so they don’t have to waste time like us. I just wanted to have a dinner with my parents and my sister, before I go back to college. We are just same human being as others that got seated. We will never forget about this...

The waitress and supporting wait staff were wonderful! We sat inside, very near to the open patio, and, even though the inside and outside rooms were open and connected to each other, the inside restaurant was still cool and comfortable, unaffected by the warm outdoors. I was happy with that! The food was actually quite disappointing, unfortunately. Arpeggio was my choice for mothers's day. We had been here on 2-3 other occasions over the past maybe 4 years, and the restaurant had been mobbed, so I don't ask my family to go here because I know the wait is so long. For mom's day, I wanted to treat myself, and knew everyone would wait since it was my day. Surprisingly, there was actually no wait, so we were immediately seated. The chicken skewers are my go-to; I did look at the full menu, but still landed on the skewers. They were tender and juicy, but I don't know where the "grill" part went. The chicken was white; no grill marks or nice searing which catches the eye and makes the dish appealing. One of my family got the penne with cheese sauce, mushrooms, and roasted red peppers; there were way too many mushrooms 😳, and the sauce was like soup (and tasted like mushroom soup). We were seated at a half-booth/half-table, which we were fine with, but I'll never understand why restaurants in general that have this type of seating don't have mirrors on the walls so that everyone facing the wall can have something to look at. I'm sure we'll be back at some point, but after having looked forward to the skewers for more than a year, and finding them very disappointing, I won't have the gnawing "need" to get back there anytime soon, sadly. I now wonder if there was no wait today due to the changes in the food which has now resulted in fewer patrons. 🤔 No pics to add since I wasn't visually impressed...

Always loved this place; even had company holiday parties there! Brought out-of-town guests there on Saturday, and was entirely disappointed between the wait, and service. I put our party of 3 on the waitlist 90 minutes before arriving to the restaurant. When I arrived, the hostesses barely made eye contact when we checked in- I had to ask a follow-up question about whether they checked us in or not. To which I was told: “there is a wait.” I explained that I understood that-hence the waitlist- and was just checking in. I was told there were two tables in front of us and we’d be seated. I’m curious how the waitlist works- when I arrived to the restaurant I was 16th on the waitlist but told there were only two tables in front of us. Should that not then mean we were third on the waitlist? This was at 6pm. At 7:40 I walked up to the stand after not being seated and after seeing walk-ins seated ahead of us- and we were told a table was finally ready.

We sat out on the beautiful deck- and after 15 minutes of no service (not even glasses for water or the bottles of wine we had sitting on the table) I got up and asked for service. Entrees were delayed or forgotten, and service was all-around abysmal. I understand there may be staff shortages and nights get busy but should that be the case, then please only allot an adequate number of tables for the number of staff (and very young staff at that- who require training) you have.

I cannot justify returning as much as I think the food and...