Food 101 Bar & Bistro — Restaurant in South Hadley

Made reservations for a special occasion. Never received an email confirming the date/time of the reservation. Ended up calling the restaurant the evening prior to confirm date/time. When they confirmed, they stated the party size and the time. Day of reservation, our full party arrived on-time. The hostess rudely stated that our reservations were for an hour after we arrived. We had confirmed the reservation date and time the night before. The hostess continued to rudely state that our reservations were for the later time and told us that ‘there’s nothing we can do for you.’ When we asked for a manager, the hostess rebutted with ‘the manager would just tell us the same thing’… that there’s nothing that they could do for us. We ended up sitting at the bar until they could take us. The bar tender was quick, she made us our drinks but wasn’t friendly. Once our table was ready, the hostess came over to use and again was rude and told us that our table was ready and wondered if we still wanted it. We were then seated at our table by our waitress. Our waitress wasn’t too friendly at first, but became somewhat more friendly as the evening went on. All in all, the food was excellent. The atmosphere was a little too dark and cold (as there’s a lot of windows and they were cold from the outside.) The service leaves a lot to be desired. When spending over $500 for 6 people to eat, the restaurant’s customer service should be better. It clear that Food 101 does not care about the...

I don't know how this place has any stars. I'd give it zero if i could, as I have nothing good to say about my experience here.

The bread sticks they serve are tasteless and hard as a rock. The food took 45 minutes to come out despite there being only one other table seated. Drinks took 10+ minutes to get to our table, and the beers had no head left on them when they were delivered to us, so they sat for a long time before being brought to us.

One member of my party got two mixed drinks. The second was made incorrectly, we all tried it and agreed. Our waitress took it back and brought another. When she delivered the new drink the waitress felt the need to say that the bartender insists that they made the other drink correctly. When you are trying so hard to be a premium restaurant, and charging rather ridiculous prices for the type of place it actually is, you don't tell your customers they are wrong.

The silverware was cheap. The seats were cheap and uncomfortable. The tables (all empty) were too close together. They sat the only other customers directly next to us instead of giving both parties some space. The copper cup that the second mixed drink came in was cheap (you can buy them at TJ Max). The handle broke off of it spilling the 14 dollar, 6 ounce, mixed drink that was 70% ice.

The food is ridiculously overpriced. I understand that at a premium restaurant you are paying for the environment and the experience that is offered, but there is nothing premium...

TLDR: Food was good 7/10. table was dirty and place mats are very unsanitary. Service was on the slow side, took us over an 1.5 hrs to leave once seated.

I went to Food 101 with my significant for an anniversary dinner/date. We had heard great things from all of our friends who have gone there in the past. When we were seated we first looked at the black bamboo place mats, they were filthy. They looked like they had not been cleaned in some time. The tables next to ours were about the same. It had dried spilled food all inside of the weaves.

They also placed the utensils directly onto the place mats instead of on a napkin or dishware. You can see what I am talking about by just going to their home page. This is unsanitary.

The service was a little on the slow side since there only about 7 people in the restaurant at this particular time. The menu was not the same as the online menu. All of the chicken dishes were different. I asked the waitress and she said that she was aware the food was different and that they had recently changed their menu around. (At the time of writing this review, I am unsure if the menu is matching or not.)

As for the food, it was good. I would give the food alone a 7/10 for taste and being cooked properly. It was the slower service (maybe it's just me because I like to be in and out when dinning out) and the unsanitary table practices that will make us probably not...