Primo Restaurant — Restaurant in Rockland

Food was truly fantastic, per usual. Service wasn’t the “worst” service I’ve ever received… but definitely some of the weirdest, unlike my other Primo experiences.

Our server dropped a few somewhat mysterious lines throughout our meal, including, when bringing us truffles at the end of the meal, that the truffles had “just come back in after a month and a half without them because I dropped the whole box on myself! So I promise these aren’t from the floor!”, which, if it was the only gaff of the evening I would have taken as a somewhat un-funny joke, but instead felt like it summed up the evening. Our server told the same three stories to the patrons around us, to little effect, and honestly just spoke about 15% too much in a “hover-y” and overpersonal way. To his credit, he was very nice, considerate and clearly trying his best, but also clearly young and somewhat new to the service industry. Not Primo putting its best foot forward.

In addition to stumbling over most of the specials and several pronunciations which we attempted to help with, (to which he said “I missed the run down last night!” But like, dude just ask someone who works here before you get to our table), the service in general was either too present or not present enough. We had as many as three waitstaff hovering around the table at a time, one of whom thrust her hand into my face to indicate to another waiter to grab the fork next to my seat mate, which I then handed her so her hand wouldn’t be in my face anymore. Our bread and appetizers came out within a minute of each other, crowding the table, and when we weren’t being waited on by all three of them, there were long gaps between courses and dishes.

Additionally, our food was repeatedly placed in front of the wrong diners, which I would normally excuse at a) not as nice a place as Primo, b) if it had only happened once or twice, rather than literally every plate at every course, and c) if it hadn’t happened while all three waiters were inexplicably at the table with our meals. And, we were celebrating three birthdays, which was gratuitously written out in chocolate on the dessert plates of those members of the party… and then all three were put in the wrong place. Not the greatest look.

Plus, one of the members of my party ordered pizza, which our server took to box up post entrees and just never brought back. Someone else from our party had to wander around the restaurant to retrieve it from a random hand protruding from the dining room (I do not kid). We would have left without truly half her meal had one of us not remembered.

As a table of 6, our gratuity was included, which I normally would not have minded except that our service was marked-ly less than whatever tip percentage was included. As one of my fellow diners said as we got up, “yeah the food and company was good, but what part of this meal will we remember?...

I'd like to preface this by saying that we've been to Primo before and had a good experience. I'd also like to note that I called the restaurant to discuss my most recent experience two weeks ago, and I was told that the owner and chef, Melissa Kelly would give me a call. She never did. My hope was to talk with the chef so that I did not have to write this review. This was such a terrible experience, one where we will not be going to Primo again. Our reservation was for 7:15pm on a Wednesday and we were asked to arrive promptly, and were told that if we did not, we may lose our reservation. We were not seated until 8pm. 45 minutes later is unacceptable. If the restaurant is asking its customers to do their part and be prompt, it is reasonable to ask that the restaurant do its part. 5-15 minutes later is not a big deal, but 45 minutes later?? That's unacceptable. As we waited during those 45 minutes, we asked the hostess if we could order a drink since we saw others waiting with drinks. She explained that she was about to seat a large party but that she would be back to take our drink order. No problem. After waiting for about 20 minutes, we were still not approached to order a drink. Then, the party standing RIGHT next to us who arrived AFTER US, asked the same hostess if they could order drinks and she took their drink order. We were never able to order drinks. We reserved a patio table but ended up on one lonely table on the ground of the property just next to the patio. We were fine with this even though our reservation was for a patio table. As you might imagine, we received our meals quite late into the evening, at around 9pm (because we were seated 45 minutes late and the kitchen was busy). The table we sat at had absolutely NO LIGHTING. We sat there eating our meal in pitch black darkness. I could not see what I was eating and I couldn't even see my partner. They finally brought dim, flameless candles out at the very end of our meal-- by that point, we had pretty much finished eating. When we asked to speak with the manager, Ian, he gave us excuse after excuse: 1) he's had 4 people quit on him in just the last two days, 2) he can't get an electrician (mind you, we wouldn't have been sitting in he dark if we were seated on time), 3) Melissa Kelly's partner recently left the business. These issues are NOT the problem of the patrons. Ian also stated that we were paying "top dollar" yet "not receiving a top experience." And he said that the next time we went to Primo, that they would "make it right." Excuse me? Next time? Why not this time? They had the opportunity IN THAT MOMENT to make it right by adjusting the bill. Completely unacceptable. Because they did not, we will not be going there again. Save yourself the trouble and go to Long Grain or Suzuki down the street-- excellent food and...

I got into Primo on Sunday. Upstairs. No reservations taken for upstairs. I got in, but not because they wanted to seat me, being alone.

I go inside and tell the gal that I wanted to have dinner upstairs. Reservation? No. How many? Just me. Welllll.....go upstairs and Jeremy will help you. I go upstairs. Not full. At least 1/3 empty. Jeremy says, how many? One. Ohhhhh...I can seat you at the bar. I say, no. I want to sit at a table, I need a chair and not a barstool, as I have a bad back. Ohhhh...with a look of disdain on his face. I'll go look.... I'm looking too.

He seats me at a 2-top. Great! Then it all got worse after that, as the waiter was the WORST I have ever had in my entire life (his name was Colin). I had on my happy face and said that I was so pleased that I could get a seat, and ordered a bottle of wine ($52) because I could cork it and take it home. May I have a chiller for the table? Ugh, he sighs and rolls his eyes. Damnit I had to check it for chill! And it all went downhill from there with him. I cancelled the oyster course through another server as I had to wait way too long for it (oh, and then he appeared at the table next to me and said to the waitress, yeah ok, but didn't address me). I asked for things from the busboy who got pissed off because after all it wasn't his job and could hardly understand me, skipped dessert, got the bill from another server because now I was getting really ticked and wanted out of there even if I had to go to the bar for the bill and had my leftovers packed by yet another busboy, and wrote a note on the receipt that "the service was the worst I've ever experienced!"

Mind you, besides the bottle of wine, I had ordered a 3 cheese course, the oyster appetizer, the duck, would have ordered dessert...the waiter's attention was briefly over the 2 tables on each side of me, although it looked like they didn’t receive much attention either. Didn't even clear the table for my dinner course.

Cold, chewy bread, burnt crust, unflavored olive oil, not even EVOO, definitely I did not receive one of the cheeses I asked for out of the 3, mustard pairing overpowering that one (obviously the 2 weren't meant to be together), music stuck on the same bass notes for the whole time, chewy fatty duck, can't even recall the sides as they apparently aren't worth recalling at this point. Not impressed, wouldn't go there again if my life depended on it.

Very very sad. I thought this was going to be a great experience based on what I had seen on TV, the chef's reputation, what I had read and viewed online...but it was horrible. I have eaten at some of the best restaurants in various countries and consider myself a Foodie. But even for the pedestrian palate wanting to experience farm to fork, don't waste your...