Fire Sign Café — Restaurant in Tahoe City

The food was 10/10 delicious and the portion sizes were absolutely massive (included hand in photo for reference). It was a super cute restaurant with a beautiful outdoor seating area. I wanted to rate the Fire Sign Cafe a 5/5; however, our service experience was not the greatest. Likely (and hopefully) a one-off, but when we arrived it took almost 10 minutes to be acknowledged -- it was a Sunday morning, just starting to get into the breakfast rush and I get staff was busy; however, there were multiple staff members who walked past multiple times without any sense of acknowledgement. A "Welcome -- someone will be with you in a moment," goes a long way. The hostesses arrived and greeted us and gave us one of those cool table wait alarms and we were able to wait until a table was available (only a short 10 min). We were seated and waited a little bit, another three tables were seated around us about 5 minutes after. A server came around and took everyone else's orders, except for ours. We continued to wait and after an additional 5 minutes passed and the tables were given their drinks, we let the hostess know we had been missed -- she apologized and we had a server come by not too long after. Our food came quickly after ordering, and again, was absolutely out of the park delicious: I had the eggs Benedict and my boyfriend had the breakfast burrito. Coffee was great and the refills were perfectly timed. After getting the bill and waiting 15 minutes to have someone come by, we grabbed a busser and asked where we could pay and he said a server should come by, when we told him that we had been waiting 15 minutes, he ran our card for us and we were able to leave. I am hoping that we had a one off experience, but seeing people around us have better service was a bit...

Looking forward as always to enjoying a late breakfast at the Fire Sign while visiting Tahoe- every experience has been excellent except for the last, this past Friday. I just finished reading other reviews and see that the customer service is being pointed out as well - it was very lacking. While being seated outside we asked if we could be in a more private area and well shaded. We were told by one server that one area was closed and only could sit in one of two areas. This was given more as an order - to my surprise. Please address your customers in a kind way. Be professional. Once seated our server started out great - the table that we were seated at was next to had a woman that did not stop talking loudly/badly and negatively. We as a family moved and let one of the servers that was there know right away as we were walking away that we were choosing to sit somewhere else with wanting peace to enjoy our meal and atmosphere. Once our server came out with our food, she "reprimanded" us for changing tables. It was a scolding. I do not expect this from any one working in a customer service position. The server never came back to check on us nor to bring a bill. Someone else did after a very long time after we finished eating and did not return to take payment. I did read from another review that you value your customers and take customer service seriously. Please train your staff properly to take care and serve well - The whole experience still does not sit right with me and I am still shocked at how we were spoken to and treated as customers (even with explanation that was given as to why we...

My family and I came here earlier this week and despite a 45 minute wait had great food and great service. So much so that we decided to come back today!

We were told it would be a 45 minute wait to 1 hour and 15 minute wait in which my father put down his name and took a buzzer and waited out back not 30 feet from the back of the restaurant while I took my wife and kids on walk and to the beach across the street. We came back after an hour and still hadn't been buzzed. My father went inside to check on the wait at 11 am, (70 minutes at this point)  and was given the same wait time,  so he joined us outside again.

Half an hour later he goes in again to check again and was told that they had buzzed us at 10:58 and again at 11:03. The buzzer had been sitting in his lap the whole time and not once did it buzz, and I doubt we would have missed it as we heard them go off for other customers waiting to be seated. He was told that they would seat us with the next available table.

About 10 minutes after that we had who I assume was the manager come out and speak to us about our long wait. We mentioned that the buzzer might not be working which the manager said was tested when he was in at 11:30, which didn't happen as it was in his hand the whole time and never went off, then accuses my father of yelling at the 14 year old up front and then refused service to all of us over a one sided story coming from a 14 year old and not a disabled veteran with 33 years of service.

All that said, their business seems to be just fine so I doubt this review will do anything. Enjoy...