I’d give this one 2.5 stars if I could.

The good: The wines there are excellent The bistro lights outside are very cute There are plenty of tables They have good sourdough bread

The not so good: This is clearly a restaurant in decline. We were there during prime dinner hours on a Saturday night for a wedding dinner, and the place wasn’t even 20% full. Despite that, service was awful, and the food incredibly slow. As in, a meal with zero appetizers or special orders took three hours (maybe to drive up the drinks tab? I’m not sure). Our waitress was very coarse, and had a really bad attitude. I don’t say that lightly - she made passive aggressive comments to the bride when we arrived about half our wedding party being late, was defensive when a dish did not include all the described ingredients, and kept giving people horrible forced smiles despite clearly not wanting to be there. She acted like she was doing us a favor just by showing up. The only time I saw her try remotely hard was when she handed everyone the check, in which she clearly wanted to ingratiate herself. But even though there weren’t many people there, servers rarely checked on us, to the point that we had to pour our own wine, and go find waitstaff when we needed anything. The elderly members of our party got very cold as the sun set, but no one was available to turn on the heat lamps. While the outdoor area was kind of nice with a fountain and cute lighting, the huge tv undercut the ambiance, along with blaring pop music that was out of sync with the old timey vibe. When I mentioned the music to the host, he was frustrated we had chosen a table near the speakers. Inside, it looked a bit like a country club from the 1950’s, that hasn’t had many updates. The hallways to the bathrooms were creepy with broken fluorescent lighting, and people were constantly almost running into each other in the dark. The food was completely uninteresting. It was good, but nothing that you might remember a week later. I guess I would call it a white bread Americana menu, mostly appealing to generations born prior to the 1960’s. It is definitely not Californian, and not high end or creative. I am very surprised it has survived in the Palo Alto market, given how different it is from other restaurants in the downtown area, and would be surprised if it’s still there a couple of years from now. I think most of the patrons must be families who have lived in the Bay quite a long time, and that this restaurant reminds them of simpler days past. They did not ask if we wanted coffee or tea with dessert, and the one person who did order coffee received it after everyone had eaten cake and was standing up to leave. The location is a little loud and hard to find next to Caltrain - take the first right off of Alma, not the second.

All in all, I was happy to be there because nothing could dim my joy at my friends’ happiness getting married. But, I thought it was important to note for other couples wanting to celebrate anniversaries or a special day, how the entire party was treated like an afterthought.

If you want to be truly celebrated, go someplace that cherishes and welcomes your business, where the experience echoes and reflects your joy.