Harbor Lights — Restaurant in Tacoma

I visited harbor lights today on 10/29 around 1:50pm. My mother flew into town from LA to celebrate her 50th birthday here with my fiancé and I. After picking her up from the airport we decided to check out a few restaurants along the waterfront. I was so excited to take her to harbor lights. I have several friends who frequent there and spoke highly of the view, food and cocktails. I thought it would be the perfect stop on our tour. We entered the restaurant and were greeted by a kind hostess and as she looked over for a table we asked her if there were any window tables available. She said yes and sat us right away. Our server came quickly after, I did not catch his name but we were seated in the very back right corner, the window table. He was an older gentleman and was serving the back right corner tables. As he filled our water cups he asked us what we would like even though we had just sat down. My mom asked him if he minded taking her plates to make room because she didn’t intend to order off the menu but was interested in the drink menu while I was browsing over the food menu. She stated that my fiancé and I were interested in the appetizers and drinks as well. He quickly got a nasty attitude with us and seemed noticeably annoyed. He VERY rudely said to her “Well the dining room is for eating ok? Not drinking” She apologized as he said I guess it’s ok. And again asked what do you want then for drinks. Still very clearly fixing her an attitude. We were scrambling to try to pick something quickly because he stood there impatiently waiting for us to choose. I was getting overwhelmed so my mom said we have not had a chance to look may we have a minute please. He left our table and I was absolutely mortified because not only did he treat my mother so rudely but he embarrassed us in front of other customers as well. I tried to ignore the situation at our table but my mother was very clearly upset. I had planned to order several drinks, an appetizer or two and a surprise birthday dessert for her birthday. We didn’t even get the chance. It was such a mood killer that my mom felt uncomfortable staying there after being treated that way. I understand if there are rules about the dining and bar area but we were not made aware of this prior to seating. No one asked us if we were there for lunch or cocktails. How was I to know you couldn’t order drinks and appetizers from a table? Many of my friends told me they have done this and have never been told that. The restaurant was not busy and we weren’t harming anyone. It made me feel like my business wasn’t good enough. I just wanted to enjoy some time with my mom and a beautiful view on her special day. This was most definitely not the experience I was hoping for and I am really disappointed because I had...

Normally this would be 4 stars, because I've been eating there with my wife and kids occasionally for the past 13 years. Tonight, however, I met there with a group of co-workers (a party of 9 total), and the dining area was not even half full. Not a problem, understanding that sometimes a restaurant isn't staffed fully and can't open every section, but the hostess simply encouraged us to try the lounge after we told her our party size, almost as if she didn't want to go through the effort to seat us.

Seeing the lounge only had two 2-top tables available, we returned to the hostess podium to inquire about a table in the dining area. She informed us in a very cold tone that the dining area is only available to customers that intend to order dinner. An odd demand, to us, since this was a beautiful Saturday afternoon where the Tacoma Dome would host 6 graduation ceremonies. We thought the manager of a waterfront restaurant would plan for this and gladly seat guests that were only there for cocktails since their lounge was near capacity, but we agreed to order dinner since we were all hungry anyway.

Front of house manager comes by the hostess station and firmly reminds us we have order dinner if we are to sit in the dining area, and by that point we feel unwelcome and begin wondering if we should walk along Ruston way and eat somewhere else.

Rather than attempting to convince us stay and spend our money here, the hostess asked to clarify, "so should I prepare the table for you or not?" Since at least 5 in our party had dined here before and not experienced this unacceptable kind of service, we ultimately decided to give the wait staff an opportunity to redeem the restaurant.

Fortunately for Harbor Lights, Lauren saved the day by providing excellent service. She was friendly, attentive, fast and personable. When ordering dessert, I informed her that because she's done an excellent job, I will continue to bring my family to this establishment rather than avoiding it because of the terrible treatment we received at the podium. She sincerely apologized and brought it to the...

So we chose this restaurant for our anniversary. We got a nice table by the window and were greeted by a relatively friendly server (I should have got her name, she was Indian/dark skinned). We immediately ordered drinks and told the server we needed a minute to look at the menu for food. Once we had time to look at the menu and see some of the food come out, we decided we were just going to get drinks and maybe an appetizer. Unfortunately there was not much selection or a great selection of apps so we decided we were going to just get drinks and then walk around Ruston instead.

When the server came back over with our drinks we told her we were probably going to just get drinks. Her attitude clearly changed and she immediately said she would get our check - we never asked to close out. She came right back over and dropped the check on the table without saying a word. We had not told her we were done having drinks, she was implying that we were done and needed to leave. Having worked in the service industry, this is extremely rude to do. However, also having worked in the service industry I know there have been times I've made mistakes or not treated customers as best I could.

Feeling bad that we decided not to get food, and in turn not have as large of a gratuity to pay to this woman, we decided to leave her a very generous tip of 50% in cash - keep in mind we were seated for maybe 10 minutes. As soon as she walked by and saw we put money on the table she grabbed it, didn't say a word and walked off. This was the rudest I have seen a server treat a customer. She did not say thank you, she did not ask if we wanted change, she said nothing. It is incredibly rude to take money from a patron and not offer change. This woman was entitled, rude and gave terrible service once she realized she wasn't getting a large bill from us. I will not return to this restaurant based on this service and I will be telling people in my community not to patronize...