The Firehouse Restaurant — Restaurant in Sacramento

I am extremely disappointed in the lack of professionalism displayed at this establishment that my husband and I experienced just last night. If i could give zero stars I would.

A little back story. I’m a nurse of 8 years, I work 12 hour overnight shifts and unfortunately had to work this past weekend, so I was unable to spend my first Valentine’s as a married couple with my new husband. Instead we decided to celebrate the day after.

We made dinner reservations through their website which directed us to OpenTable. The only available time slot for 2 people was 9pm. These reservations were made 2 days prior on Saturday.

We live over an hour from the restaurant and were super excited to go and have this amazing experience that it boasts. We get all dressed up, arrive just a tad past 9 and the doors are locked. There is a menu posted outside saying dinner service is until 9:30. So why were the doors locked prior to that?

Thankfully patrons were leaving so we got inside that way. We found a waiter and explained we had a reservation for 9. He simply says okay and checks the system and tells us to follow him. We pass by another waiter that greets us. We were told to wait to be seated and that he would find the hostess. There were plenty of people still sitting on the patio and eating and drinking.

All of a sudden an older gentleman whom I now know is the GM and wine director Mario (had to find that out through Instagram since he didn’t have the decency to introduce himself) walks up behind us and says “how did you get in?” We explained and also stated we had a reservation for 9 pm that was checked by the staff. His response was “the kitchen is closed, all the staff was sent home i can’t serve you anything”. That was it. No acknowledgment that we had a reservation, no apology nothing.

Yet some people on the patio just had wine on their tables. Highly doubt you’d come to a place such as this just for a glass of wine. And it didn’t bode well when we saw plates still being brought out and kitchen staff in the kitchen as we walked out.

How hard is it to check your reservations??? Or if you HAD to send staff home you could have called those reservations and cancelled with them or rescheduled!!!Or simply just be nice about it and direct us to a different establishment that may be open. Maybe change tour sign outside that says 9:30 because I don’t know seems a little misleading if you are there for 9pm and the doors are locked! Totally would have understood if we came without a reservation and tried to be served. But the point is we didn’t. We had a time slot set for us and the other two staff we interacted with said nothing of a kitchen being closed or no chefs there to cook. Seems strange to me that they’d try to seat us. I would think your wait staff would know if there was no one there to make food 🙄🙄🙄

Mario seemed like he could care less about our night. We don’t live around the block from this place and came hungry so we spend the next hour driving in Sacramento trying to find an alternative and thankfully we did.

Clearly customer service isn’t a priority here. Won’t be dining here ever again and after last night I’m glad they won’t get any...

The gist: The bar service experience was bad & the food was good! Well-priced & portioned on happy hour.

The details: This is a historic Sacramento restaurant I've always known about but haven't gone to until 1/2/23, for happy hour. I've gotta say, I had high expectations because it's considered an upscale restaurant. Sad to say I didn't get that experience!

We came in right when they open, at 4pm, so it was pretty empty at that point. You can definitely smell the fact that the building is historic, but you get used to it quickly. There was a family sitting at one of the bar tables. No one greeted us. I came up to the bar tender to say hi! I asked about seating and he said he prefers we sit at the bar but the bar tables are open too. When I asked why, he said it was easier for him to serve us & the tables aren't set yet. Given the reasoning sounded like laziness on their end and not a legitimate reason, we still sat at the table & the bar tender was NOT happy about it (very strange lol). That essentially set the tone for the service we got. He then said that the family was sitting at the bar table because there was a kid, thats the only reason they werent sitting at the bar (why is it such a big deal to sit at the bar tables? thats what they're there for). Others who came in and sat at the bar tables got the same "upset" response about it and eventually it was comical to see this guy's bitter response to everything. Lol Throughout the night he seemed like a bitter guy who's so done with the industry.

The host stand is not at the entrance of the restaurant where they can greet guests, but past the bar area at the entrance of the dining room. The host did come up to guests who were trickling in for dinner and would ask, "do you guys have reservations?" I used to host at the Waldorf Astoria and this made me cringe-- calling guests "you guys"!? Hard no at any "upscale" place. Overall the demeanor of both the bar tender & hostess were unprofessional and when we asked her something, it was the same as the bar tender... they seemed plain miserable, which makes everything very uncomfortable.

The food and drinks on happy hour were really good & well-priced-- especially loved the fries and the burgers come full-sized (the fries that come with the burger are waffle fries, different than whats on the menu but still good)! My boyfriend didn't enjoy the food as much as I did-- he thought it was all "okay". I didn't love the dirty wine glasses though-- they definitely weren't polished (standard practice at a restaurant of this caliber). The best service we got was from the runners and main dining room servers who ran food-- they knew how to greet in a high-end, professional, & friendly manner and leave a good impression in a matter of SECONDS! This makes me think it would be a totally different experience in the dining room if we were to come for a formal dinner-- I'll be back to experience that in the courtyard but won't be back to relive an...

My wife and I had decided to celebrate our anniversary at the Firehouse recognizing their solid reputation. Though the food was good, the unequal treatment and their explaination of such treatement made us question their intent with us. I've experienced far better service and corrective action from fast food restaurants than what was experienced at the Firehouse.

The Firehouse has a happy from 4-6 Monday through Friday. My wife and I arrived and were seated at 5:40p. We were then presented with the dinner and drink menu. Not seeing the happy hour menu, we asked to see it. The server stoicly said it is not available. We further shared of the time being before 6p. Again she responded happy hour was not being served. Rather than get argumentative, my wife and I accepted her response, to continue our anniversary celebration with the intention of ordering from the regular dinner menu.

While looking through the dinner menu, I could overhear surrounding tables being offered the happy hour menu and were able to order from it. I requested to speak our attendant, and he was not certain of the reason we were not able. After a back and forth dialogue, he relented, recognizing it was still before 6p and provided us with the happy hour menu. After our order had arrived, our attendant voluntarily returned to share of the reason. Keep in mind, my wife and I were already content we able to order from the happy hour menu, however our attendant's explaination left a bad feeling as it was not logical or reasonable. He simply explained, pointing at the sliding door rail inches away from us, if we were on the other side, we would have been able to order from the happy hour menu. Due to our table being 6 inches on the other side of the sliding door rail, the happy hour menu was not available to us. It was a surprise to hear such a response from a fine dining restaurant, identifying classism within their dining room.

Feedback of the experience was shared, and the general manager Mr. Ortiz was quick to respond to the feedback the following day. He attempted to justify what we experienced with a variety of reasonings. From a new staff, business operation strategy, to the pandemic, all of which did not explain the treatment we received. His corrective action to me was simply to inform the owners and talk to the staff. Who knows what has been done after he hung up with me. As the general manager, his corrective action could have been better with an invitation to return.

With the experience recieved at the Firehouse, regardless how beautiful their dining room is or how good their food is. The treatment and response I received was not ok. It is very disappointing to see a well established fine dining restaurant to...