Fife and Farro — Restaurant in San Antonio

I wish you could give zero stars but unfortunately you cannot. What didn’t go wrong here? My friends and I ordered our food and it came out individually. One pasta came out, the runner asked if we had ordered it. We said yes and my friend was in the middle of saying it was hers when he dropped it and walked off. Pretty rude. The next dish came at least FIFTEEN to TWENTY minutes later. My pizza came out, pretty charred on the bottom, but it was something I could get over. Then a different runner brought out another pizza and went to set it under mine, and drops a couple slices. He sets scoops them back on, sets it down completely and asks if it was okay. I looked at my friend since it was her pizza and he asked if we wanted another one. However, the tone in which he asked suggested we shouldn’t. So I asked how long it would take to get a new one. He said they were pretty backed up so minimum 20 minutes. I’m sorry??? If it was not our fault that it fell, why do we have to wait an extra 20 minutes?? I said just to leave it because there was no way we were waiting that much longer when two of the four dishes had been served and getting cold.

We finally get all of our food and our waitress finally comes over and asks if it’s all good. We said yes and she leaves. Spoiler alert, she does not interact with us until 10 or 15 minutes after we’ve finished all of our food and had just been talking waiting for the check. We look over at the table next to us, mind you they were a bigger party and had been sat after us, and they had all of their dinner plates cleared and had dessert. We didn’t even know they had dessert here. We were still sitting there, drinks empty and plates everywhere on our table. Our waitress was also their waitress and we began to notice how often she would check on how they were doing. At one point we tried to call her and she ignored us and went to clean a table. She then comes back, to the table next to us again, asks them if they’re ready for the check, and then leaves. At this point we didn’t think she would come over to us at all. She then comes back to our area, checks on that table a third time, and then turns around, looks at us and asks “did yall want the checks too?” She didn’t ask, how was everything, can i clear some plates for yall, are we having any dessert? Just bare minimum service.

We then ask for the manager and she says yes, but like why? At this point, there was no reason to ask since she ignored us most of the time we were there, so we said we just needed to talk to him and there was really no reason to ask. She rings up our cards and then comes back. Silence. Does not say a word to us. My friend then asks, did you get the manager to which she says no not yet. I’m sorry again?? She then leaves and gets the manager.

The manager just makes things worse. We try to explain how we had an issue with the service from multiple people and he had a dismissive tone, keeps cutting us off while we’re talking, does not hear our complete story. If he felt like we were talking too much then there’s an issue in itself because that’s how terrible to service was. He then says he’ll take care of the bill and void our transaction, he just wishes we had talked to him before we paid. We called him over as soon as we were given our checks the waitress just did not get him. He said he didn’t even know we needed him until after we paid. We let him know we had to ask for him TWICE. He then walks away and talks with our server. They all start laughing at the service stand. It does not matter what they were talking about because they should understand impact versus intent. If they wanted to talk about it in the moment he should have stepped off, not joked around with them.

Once we left the restaurant, my friends told me she was watching us leave and venting to someone else. I looked over and noticed this so since they wanted to keep treating us terrible here are their names: Lilly T was our server and Charles was...

We discovered Fife & Farro this past Saturday when we were at the Farmer’s Market. We were looking forward to coming for a late lunch date today with our Son & Daughter. The experience started very well, the drinks came out in a timely manner and were just as expected. After that our server “ ” Took our food order (2 pizzas, Spaghetti w/a meatball & Foccacia Bread). While sitting there enjoying our drinks we noticed that a couple across from us who had already received their order was brought 2 additional pizzas, spaghetti w/meatball and focaccia bread. Neither the waiter nor the couple seemed to question the additional food that was brought to their table. We kept chatting as we were waiting on our food order. Then after about 10 minutes our server. came and checked on us and Realized that our order was served to the wrong table. He proceeded to get the 2 pizzas that had been sitting with the couple across from us for 10 minutes as they ate over it and served them to us!!! He told us “I have no clue why they gave that to them”. Then left and at that precise moment he didn’t offer any other compensation for the error. In my view the correct option would’ve been to offer us fresh pizza and not serve us the cold pizza that has been sitting at someone else’s table as they ate!!! I also had to ask him if he forgot about our focaccia bread and spaghetti and he looked at the other table and I am more than positive he didn’t bring us what he had served to other couple as they had already helped themselves to our food!! Needless to say, as much as this place was totally our vibe, I can honestly say that I don’t think I would ever come back, much less recommend it to anyone else! However, I must say that he did take off the spaghetti & bread from our bill only after he saw how upset I was. Question: Would the server Or Fife and Farro allow this exact scenario had we been someone else of an apparent different status? ANSWER: NO!!! Signed—Joe &...

Overall this was not a great experience. The food quality and taste were definitely there. We had several pastas and a couple apps & enjoyed them all. The focaccia in particular was really delicious, although it's worth noting that it is not traditional focaccia. It's just garlic bread. But the restaurant itself has a lot of functional issues that will ultimately keep us from returning.

They pride themselves on everything being fresh and made to order, as they should. But in reality this translated to one person's main being brought out, then a 5 minute wait, then the next main brought out, then a 10 minute wait, then finally the third main. Our server's excuse for this was that everything was being made to order. Timing is an integral part of running a restaurant. If the kitchen can't figure out how to fire dishes in an order that allows a table to eat their mains together, that strikes me as a big issue. Plating was also a little off—one plate was far too small for the amount of pasta jammed on it, and the ragu had maybe 1oz of meat in it, compared to other reviewer photos of this dish where there's nearly half a cow on the plate.

One member of our party is unable to drink alcohol and tried to order a Shirley Temple, which was turned down because "oh we don't stock the syrup to make it." The syrup is grenadine, one of the most fundamental items at a cocktail bar. Even Red Lobster has grenadine.

Our server, while friendly, was all over the place. Took 2 people's drink orders and left without taking the 3rd person's order. Started trying to grab plates off the table without letting us answer whether we were actually done with said plates.

While I would consider getting pizza to go in the future, dining in was not it. There are far better, more consistent Italian options...