Willie's Modern Fare — Restaurant in Rancho Mirage

We went for the Sunday tea service and were overall disappointed.

On first arriving the atmosphere seemed overall good, although their air conditioning isn't powerful enough to deal with the extreme summer heat, so we weren't as comfortable as we'd like.

When it came to the service, the staff was friendly but that's about where the positives in that side of things end:

-It took almost 20 minutes before we were able to order. -When we got our tea about 20 minutes after ordering, one of our party's tea pot water was at best luke warm. -The server didn't stop by to check on us for over 5 minutes after our tea arrived, so we had to flag someone down. This allowed our one party member to ask for a replacement tea and order another drink. -It took another 20 minutes to get both the replacement tea and additional drink, but that was only after flagging down our waiter to ask where they were because we again had no one stopping by to check on us. -Even though the tea service has a set food menu and we had a reservation, we didn't get our food until almost an hour after sitting down. -Despite the issues, we weren't comped anything or even offered a reasonable apology/explanation. If they were training folks and/or under staffed we would have understood if they'd mentioned that to us.

On top of the issues above, there are a few common tea service things missing from this experience:

-Having the first cup of tea poured by the staff. -If the tea isn't fully steeped upon delivery to the table, letting us know how much longer it needs to steep, given each tea is unique. -Similarly, each tea should have its own appropriate temperature of water for steeping. -Each person should have their own serving of each food item on the menu. While this was true of most of the savory items, each dessert item either had to be cut in half or only one of every two people could enjoy it.

The food and desserts were really quite tasty, though, so we are considering giving Willie's another chance...

Oh, Willie. What are we going to do with you? To be fair we went for Christmas dinner and were forced to endure an overpriced and less-than-average prix fixe menu. The “four course” menu’s first “course” was, in fact, an amuse bouche consisting of a very soggy, tiny crostini with a frozen mini-shrimp on top. The second course we had a beet salad which was made so far in advance of serving that the beets were dried out and the color of the red beets had bled into the yellow beets. Then there was the main course, a filet mignon drenched in a thick sauce which was also dried out from being thrown into the oven to heat before serving. The steak was edible, and certainly the least offensive course of the evening, but if you put a Mastro’s or Eddie V’s filet next to it; the Willie’s offering couldn’t hold a candle. And finally, for dessert we had the mini apple pie which was not only tasteless and freezing cold, but also was clearly made at least a day in advance.

And for a very bad cherry on top of this horrible experience, they took the liberty of adding a 20% gratuity on to the bill (that’s 20% after taxes,) but did NOT line item the added gratuity. I had to just figure out by guessing what the additional $56 added to the bill was for.

ADDENDUM: Thank you, Willie, for your thoughtful response. I am certainly sympathetic to the difficulties of delivering an excellent experience with a prix fixe holiday seating; and most people that I speak to are generally happy with their dining experiences at your fine establishment. But if you’re like me and many restauranteurs, you want all the feedback, both positive and less-than-positive so that you can continue to improve. Which I trust you will do. My best wishes for your...

Spectacular FAIL! Went here today, 3 of us, on a Sunday. Mind you they do not open until exactly 11 a.m. - so don't bother showing earlier.

Service was extremely slowwwwww (non-existent really) and I believe there may have been only one wait person for the entire place, although there was a hostess, water boy, person bringing out food. Waited to order drinks, never got a water refill, waited to pay finally asking the hostess to take our payment, etc. Horrible.

Drinks? Nah.....don't bother. There was little to no booze in them.

Food? Nah.....don't bother. Monte Cristo Sandwich was basically a grilled ham and cheese sandwich with some sort of "jam" that was completely devoid of flavor. Husband's omelet was just an omelette. EXPENSIVE for what you get. Food was marginal at best.

Perhaps the biggest complaint (and I complained to our server) is the "special reserved" whatever was going on later today in the bar. A choir group was practicing in the bar. Loud, loud, loud......because, of course, like all of the restaurants by these guys there are only hard spaces. It really was very very unpleasant. So much so you really couldn't have a conversation. Why did this have to go on when guests arrived? Why couldn't they "practice" earlier in the day? Horrible..............

There was no "would you like anything else." Or "would you like dessert." Or "would you like another drink." Just awful.

Not many diners in this place on a Sunday a.m. and I guess we all know why.

We left immediately after eating as did others. BRING BACK...