Saint 1881 Coffee & Cocktail Bar — Restaurant in Rochester

It’s really unfortunate to even have to be writing this, as I sent an email to them directly about my experience and never heard back. So after a week with no reply, I decided it was necessary to share so others can avoid the same issues I had.

I want to start by saying they don’t take reservations, however, I was told they would make an exception and put in a reservation for me as I had a large group for a holiday work party.

I called back in mid November about a reservation for 10 people on Friday, December 13th. I was told all I needed to do was put a CC number down since it was such a large group. However, someone would have to call me back for the information. A week goes by and I was never called. So I reached back out and was told again that someone would call me back that evening to get the CC information, as the person I spoke to didn’t work evenings and was unsure if my reservation was even confirmed. And again, I never received a call back. I then decided to send an email, hoping maybe I would get better communication that way. The manager Klaudia texted me that night and told me my reservation was indeed confirmed, didn’t ask for a CC to have on file, but said we all needed to be present to be seated and that we could use up to two forms of payment to pay our bill. All sounded good to me.

The 13th comes, and I got there right at 6p with the other ladies trickling in, and fully expecting to only be seated when we all arrived as discussed. Upon speaking to the hostess, she had no idea what I was talking about when I told her we had a reservation. She was visibly confused when I explained the details and left to go talk to someone. She then came back and insisted they don’t take reservations, and I had to reiterate that I had spoken to the manager Klaudia and had a specific reservation made for a special occasion. She still looked highly confused as if she didn’t even know who Klaudia was, then said it would just be a little bit of a wait so she could “put these tables together” (when there were no tables to be put together), unless we wanted to sit by the door, to which I originally declined because it was a 20 degree night with the door swinging open every few minutes.

15 minutes goes by, everyone in my group had arrived and nothing was happening. I was truly convinced the hostess was trying to avoid us for a good little while. So we opted to sit by the door and were told “we would be moved” to the main area when something was available, per the hostess (which never happened).

By the time we sat and had orders in, we really only had time for one drink before having to leave for our dinner reservation. And our server, while nice, told us we were only able to use one form of payment. To which I assumed she also had no idea about our reservation.

Unfortunately, the final nail in the coffin: my drink was absolutely horrible. The St. Lavender was nothing but pure bitter lemon juice. But at that point, I didn’t even bother to send it back or say anything to our server, as I was just fed up with the entire experience I’d had with Saint 1881 from start to finish.

While everyone I’d spoken to had been friendly, the lack of quality service due to what seems to be zero communication between staff is highly unfortunate and disappointing. There was no apology for the inconvenience or lack of awareness, no manager came out to speak to us, and there was nothing done to try and right the errors on their part. I should not have had to reach out multiple times over the course of three weeks for a confirmation, just to arrive and not have a reservation after all or anyone aware we were even coming in.

I’d wanted to visit for a long time and was very excited to, but this experience really ruined it for me as well as the ladies I was with. And I don’t think I’ll be back.

I hope this can be a learning experience and doesn’t happen again to someone else...

Overpriced Scammers. In all my years of dining out almost every day, I have never felt the need to leave a negative review on a business until now.

Place was packed when me and my family arrived, we were all practically rubbing shoulders with surrounding tables making it difficult to get up to go to the restroom.

Waitress was kind initially and recommended me to try their old fashion, as I had never drunk one before. After only taking one or two sips I asked if I could return it and order another drink as it was not my taste and was told that she was unable take any alcohol off of our tab while her attitude tensed up for the rest of our stay. Seriously? I was recommended something and did not like it and still was forced to pay!! After reading reviews of this place I see I am not the only person this has happened to and was the driving force behind me even writing this review. Oh and did I mention it costed around $20 with the house liqour and was charged $1 just for the ice!! That was definitely a first for me.

All of the food orders came out at separate times, and while the quality of the food cannot be denied, the portions are absolutely abysmal. $25 for a plate of pasta that was not even a serving size big enough for one person (all of their plates are marketed as appetizers so you would expect they each can serve 2-3 people minimum.) Menus have no pictures so you do not know what you are getting until it comes out, and are still forced to pay if you do not like it!! There was barely any room on our table to fit a charcuterie board and a couple other small plates along with our drinks and plates. I heard the ambiance of the place was good which is what made me want to try this place but it is definitely not the case, at least not when it is busy.

The bathroom situation is horrendous, the bathrooms are single person, and there is a shared sink outside of the bathrooms in the middle of the hallway which seems to be more of a photo booth. Waitresses also walking right by the bathroom sinks with food right next to the people waiting to wash their hands.

All in all I would not recommend this place to anyone, seriously you can get the same quality of food & drinks for a better value at so many other places just in Rochester alone, without the drink prices comparable to the best restaurants in downtown Detroit or Birmingham. Never had any type of management talk to us to see how we were when the waitress clearly saw we were not happy with our experience. Seems like this place is just peddling overpriced food & drinks to those gullible enough to have it justified with some...

At first the vibe was intriguing and we were excited for the opportunity to experience the restaurant, however we had a reservation and had to wait at the bar area for over 45 minutes past our reservation before we were offered a table, which at that point we decided to finish our drinks and go elsewhere. When first ordering, I was handed a bill for our 2 drinks before even receiving the drinks which I thought was extremely odd. Then when cashed out we didn’t realize gratuity was auto added without notification. Although in total there was a group of us, we weren’t seated together and didn’t order together. We were spread out across the bar having to order separately. So when the bartenders auto added 20% tip no one expected it and no one was informed which lead to everyone tipping on top of 20% or with cash on top of card and when I asked for the tip to be removed from our bill since we already tipped, I was rudely told the state legally allows 20% to be added and the manager would not remove. It was very minimal as it was for 2 drinks, but after paying $21 for each drink and tipping cash on our own, refusing to remove an auto tip was rude and more about principle. Although legal, the law also requires notification which was not provided and can lead to fines. We were never given a menu stating their policy, never served as a group larger than two, and were not the only customers who felt the addition was not transparent. When I explained that, I was told there were cameras showing we drank at the bar?? I never denied drinking, I denied being told 20% was added to our bill or those around us. When she refused to help I explained we would dispute. Not worth the loss of customer loyalty or the word of mouth in my opinion. We highly recommend Hemmingways down the street as an alternative.

To get a Michigan establishment fined for not notifying customers of an automatic service charge, you can contact the Michigan Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division: Address: P.O. Box 30213, Lansing, MI 48909 Phone: (517) 335-7599 or toll-free (877) 765-8388 Restaurants that don't clearly notify customers of a mandatory service charge risk violating consumer protection laws. These laws prohibit "surprise" or arbitrary fees...