The Vig — Restaurant in Phoenix

Overall Customer Experience: Beyond Extremely Poor Total Time: 1hr 30 minutes Food quality: just ok Food arrival timeframe: fine Host: fine Server: Nonexistent Dined 6/22 Cashed Out 9:48pm Balance Paid: $78.19 Tip: $0

Our receipt shows that our server for tonight was named Sean. However, it felt like we received more interaction and pleasantries with the food runner rather than our server named Sean.

(0 minutes in) First, Sean told us the water was on the way after we gave him our appetizer and bottle of wine selection.

(5 minutes in) 3-5 minutes pass while Sean prepares the wine but still, no water arrived even after he finished pouring our wine. Then our appetizers arrive but no Sean, and no water.

(20 minutes in) At this point, 15 minutes have passed without Sean checking in or asking if we wanted to put any requests in for entrees, regardless of our menus being placed away from us at the edge of the table as though indicating the table was ready to order.

(25 minutes in) Finally, Sean comes back to take our orders and also asked if waters were served. Again, Sean said waters were on the way and then left to place our order with the kitchen.

(45 minutes in) A few minutes after our dinners arrive and again cannot find our server to request silverware and napkins, in addition to the waters that Sean said were on the way. After waving him down for assistance, he asked how the food was only to realize we haven't eaten yet.

And yet, even at that moment, there was no apology or water. Sean finds silverware and then leaves again, saying that the water will be on its way and then he goes back outside.

(1hr 5 minutes in) We took around 20 minutes to eat and watch Sean serve his other tables outside and also chat with his friends who were seated in the booth behind us.

I am certain Sean overheard us guessing how many more times he would tell us water was on the way before we finished dinner because at that time when he asked if we had water yet and we said no, he actually came back in under a minute with a glass of water, in each hand; his own hands.

(1hr 10 minutes in) At this time, Sean appears at the table again and he doesn't ask if we are done eating or how the food was. His first question was, "would you like your food boxed up to go now?"

We never indicated we were ready to leave as we still had full glasses of wine and our dinner in front of us. --What about dessert?

Feeling rushed by Sean, he placed our food in boxes and then left back outside without providing us our first receipt to review. We finished our wine and had our payment ready but, still could not find Sean.

(1hr 25 minutes in) After everything we had endured, I left my table, stood in front of the POS system and waited for the first server that arrived to cash me out.

Without questioning the situation and with ninja-like movement, the cocktail runner printed out our final receipt and went back to serve cocktails without closing our bill.

Now, I am turning in circles looking for the nearest server, food runner, or dishwasher to help. Finally, another person walks out and behind the bar and assists with closing out our receipt.

(Total Time Wasted: 1hr 30 minutes)

Sean, if we somehow offended you from the moment you walked up to our table tonight, we apologize. If my Wonder Woman t-shirt offended you, I apologize.

If we kept you from going to meet-up with your friends who were sitting behind us the entire time we were seated, we'll apologize for that as well even though your priorities while you're on the clock as a server should be serving everyone equally, not just your friends.

To say this Customer Experience was extremely poor is an understatement. I see I'm not the first to experience similar issues with staff.

This experience made us feel as those we were a bother and not welcomed whatsoever from the moment we sat down.

There were so many areas of opportunity to own up to the situation rather than completely throwing in the towel and rushing us...

Such a great start, but the rest of the experience was pretty disappointing. We had a group of 10, five couples, and had a reservation in a great location to watch the football playoff game outside. It wasn't warm, but they did a good job keeping the heaters on. We gave our drink orders, and thought our waitress was going to be spot on, but she was basically "not around" the rest of the meal unless we flagged the water girl down to find her. When the food came out from the kitchen it was clear the runners had zero direction on what went where, they just kept calling out what the dish was and we had to raise our hand. Our waitress was not even out at the table, and the patio was NOT busy. When it came time to pay the bill we again had to ask for her, and when she came up to the table she said she can split the bill "among three cards only." We were like, what???? We had been dining all over town all weekend and not once was this the practice, and how do you decide which three credit cards when there are five couples? No where did it say this was standard policy as she was quoting. Long story short we spoke to the manager on duty and he said he could run it on five cards and divide it out by our couples, no problem, but that wasn't standard protocol. The waitress then said said, "yeah I guess I can do that," and proceeded to bring us tickets that weren't even accurate as to what we had, so I don't know how she had even taken the orders. We just decided pay the bill sitting in front of you since there are five bills...until we noticed she charged us for an "extra" old fashioned she had earlier brought out and said "oops I made an extra," and proceeded to take it back to the bar, but yet it was on OUR bill. Then she said, oh I think I also charged you for crispy cauliflower and you didn't have that either, so let me take that off. It was such a bummer as the food was great, but we would never go back here based on the service at this location. The manger seemed clueless as to how to even handle the situation, I would have never guessed he would be managing this place based on his lack of professionalism. UPDATE: The GM reached out to me, called me and we had a really great conversation where she assured me this is NOT the way they do business. We went over the entire night as she sincerely wanted to know top to bottom what our entire dining experience was like, she had researched who our servers had been, time of night, and had already addressed the lack of service and "rouge rules" our server had made. She even sent me a gift card in the mail to try their restaurant again when we come back to town. It was really impressive, felt like she went the "extra mile" and we will definitely give it...

WITHOUT A DOUBT THE WORST DINING EXPERIENCE I HAVE HAD IN YEARS!!! I took a long time friend out for a birthday dinner. Let me start by saying the only saving grace was the outstanding server Aaron Barnett who was excellent and should find a manager to work under who matches his skill set. We ordered an appetizer and some drinks. We moved on and ordered a brand new item (we were told later) which was the flat iron steak. Both steak dinners including the vegetables were cool and under cooked. We immediately reported the poor meal to the waiter. After about a half hour wait, they brought us two more meals which were also cold and under cooked exactly the same as before. I sent mine back and my friend reported his to the manager -Jasmine as being cold, but he was starving and needed to leave soon and ate a small portion of the meal. Another half hour passed and I received my replacement meal (salmon) and it was hot. After 4 under cooked steak dinners and both he and I eating dinner 1/2 hour apart and almost two hours later the manager Jasmine came to our table to explain they just added the Flat Iron steak to the menu and they are having problems with it and no apology - at all. Soon after our bill arrived. Remember... all 4 steak dinners were under cooked and my friend only took a few bites and gave up. We were charged full price and the bill showed an amount subtracted that should have been for 3 of the 4 bad steak meals. Guess what - the math did not add up and we were charged 4 dollars more than we should have been. The waiter and the manager Jasmine could not figure out how Jasmine did the math. Simply, Aaron came back without an explanation, embarrassed and with the same bill. At this point I gave up and could not wait to get home write this review. I tipped Aaron 20% because he was the only one who knew his job. The manager Jasmine did not care in the least about our experience - side note, as we left Aaron approached us with a couple $1 dollar off drink coupons which I passed on. He also gave us his General Manager’s Card which I considered both responsible and thoughtful. The Vig took what should have been a wonderful birthday dinner and ruined the entire evening. I wish we would have selected a better managed restaurant to...