The Mews Restaurant & Cafe

Our recent visit to this restaurant's pop-up location was nothing short of a disaster. Let me preface this by saying we booked a 7:30 PM reservation with the understanding that we'd need to leave by 8:50 PM to catch a performance. Based on our week-long experiences at other fine dining establishments in town (shout out to Victor’s and The Red Inn for getting it so so right), we believed this would be feasible.

The evening started decently with prompt delivery of drinks and appetizers. However, the drinks were bland, and the appetizer was tasteless to the point that we had to request balsamic vinegar to make it remotely interesting.

Then, the service came to a grinding halt. Empty dishes and glasses sat on our table for 30 minutes. A second round of beverages was ordered but never arrived. This was on a Thursday evening, mind you. Concerned about our timing, we ordered pasta, cod, and a salad and asked for updates, only to be misled repeatedly. After being assured that our food was being plated, another 10 minutes passed, and it became clear we wouldn’t have time to eat.

We talked through our options as a group and considered simply taking the meal to go, only to be reminded that the theater didn't allow outside food, especially a fish dish. When we requested the manager remove the meals from our bill so we could settle our bill and leave, the situation escalated horrendously.

The manager arrived and instead of understanding our plight, he berated us. He insulted our intelligence for making a 7:30 PM reservation before a 9:00 PM show and went as far as suggesting we belonged at Denny’s. In our experience, anyone would be annoyed waiting over a hour for food to arrive. The insults didn't stop there; he continued to mock our intelligence and affluence. When we stated we would simply like to leave after his unacceptable and unprofessional behavior, he threatened to call law enforcement. After some back-and-forth, he begrudgingly removed the meals but continued his tirade, recommending we stick to Denny’s.

We have never experienced such unprofessionalism and hostility in any dining establishment. We weren’t looking to cheat the restaurant out of a free meal - we simply didn’t want to pay for food we couldn’t eat because the kitchen could not produce the meal in the time previously promised. Even if they couldn’t comp the meal for a technical reason, a simple offer of a gift card for a future meal would have sufficed. An offer to hold our meals for later pickup would have also been acceptable and we would have been happy to pay. Instead, we were met with outright disrespect.

The food and drink we did get to try was far below other establishments in town (see our recommendations above). The pop up location provides no real ambiance either (it’s very dark and cramped) and the service was absolutely awful. Avoid this place at all costs. We certainly will, and we'll make sure others are warned.