Bacchus & Venus — Restaurant in Sausalito

I have mixed feelings about the place because the wine selection was very good however the lady who served us was a bit rude. I think she was the owner but not sure. We were two men who came in with the expectation to sample the wines and then have a glass. He wanted red and I wanted sweet so we thought we would share the tastings so we could try all. They advertise 1.5 ounce per taste so it was enough for us both to get a taste. As soon as I said share she immediately jumped on my sentence to say they do not allow sharing. Once I was able to finish my sentence that she cut off she said sharing two tastings was fine. Again we planned to get two glasses at the end. The reason I wanted to do this was because I like the small town experience and wanted to support these smaller stores. I don’t want a world full of Amazon and Walmart’s!! Anyway during the tasting she was short. She did answer my questions however I wanted her to engage with us, especially since we were new to wine. She was also dealing with another customer so maybe that was part of the issue however there was another lady there that could have handled one or the other. At first I was just chalking the experience up that she was just busy however as we were on our last wine another couple man and woman came in to do a tasting. Before they started on their tasting the lady taught them how to properly taste the wine and engaged on where in San Fran they were staying. Both of which she didn’t do for us. It wasn’t until our last wine that she explained and that was only because we were close to the other couple. I did purchase another item however was not going to order wine. I did enough supporting the business. I normally tip with wine tastings however did not leave one this time. I am far from cheap however not going to support bad service. So if want a good selection and not worried about the service please visit.

Appreciate the response from the owner. I would consider revisiting the place if I’m back in the area. Again it is has great selection. Hopefully if/ when I return I can write a more all around positive review. I am a big supporter for...

This was the absolute worst experience I’ve ever had as a customer to any establishment- EVER. If I could give negative stars I would. The owner herself, I believe her name was Mary Roth, barked at us like an animal and was extremely rude during the less then 5 minutes we spent in this store. We were on a mystery picnic event provided by Amazing Co., and our last stop, to complete the picnic, was a bottle of pre-paid wine at this wine bar. As soon as we walked in we were scolded with “here’s a menu, give me a minute”. We waited patiently for her to close out the other couple at the bar and when she came back to us, I explained our situation, and that we were only there to pick up a pre-paid bottle of wine. She began to get extremely flustered and said “my system is down can you come back later”, I tried to speak and explain we are already paid just need the wine and can leave- she then barked like an animal “what don’t you understand, my system is down”. This is the most bizarre treatment I’ve ever seen in a public establishment, it was like she was on drugs. I responded with- this is no way to speak to customers, and her actual response was “I don’t give a damn, I’m stressed out”. At this point I was not going to argue with this crazy woman so we left. Mind you, we had already paid for this wine, that we’ve just been denied. If there are other owners- please do your business a favor and get this woman out of dealing with customers, she is a complete physcho. Please do not try to deny this interaction, I’d challenge you to pull up the store camera and see this disdainful behavior...

I had a mediocre tasting with my friends, then we each got a glass and chatted waiting for another person to show up. Once he got there we were asked if we could pay now because it was busy and having to deal with 4 different cards would take a while. Okay, sure. So we pay, I decide to buy an aerator, and instead of just charging my card again, she cancels the first charge (but I never saw a receipt saying the charges were reversed) and charges the card again.

When we get home, we all see an additional charge on our cards. After calling our card companies, and finding out the card number had been manually keyed in by the store after we had left (umm FRAUD much?), we called the shop and were rudely berated for "stealing." Since none of us were charged for the small glass of wine after the tasting, we figured it was included.

I'd recommend not going here, unless you like rude people and fraud! But if you do,...