Swing the Teapot — Restaurant in Town of Hempstead

My friend and I were very excited to have Brunch at StT, and it wasn't that bad. The teapots and decore are cute, and the food was great.

The issue was the service, from top to bottom. For one, my friend was entirely ignored while she was there. I could easily wave some of the staff down for an order, refill, etc. But she practically had her body in the way and she was ignored (she had been trying for 15 minutes to get attention with varying volumes of "excuse me?" in a sweet tone and often had full eye contact and acknowledgement from staff, but she was constanlty walked past. Finally she had her hand lightly on a staff's arm as the staff finished taking an order at the table next to us and my friend said excuse me, and the staff made eye contact with both of us, but left; continue reading below).

My friend, because she was ignored, was left with 2 teapots, 2 cups, and 1 large and 1 small plate in front of her on a small 2 person table for over an hour. They had cleared my items, and when she said she was done too they just walked away and never came back to take it. Though, they did come back to give us teapots and cups when we ordered them - but they wouldn't clear her dishes. She said several times excuse me, I'm done can you take these? and they would say yes but never took them. It wasn't until finally I asked, 2 hours after getting there, to please take it that they finally did.

Another thing is that the restaurant doesn't have a maximum dining time. I moved to Oklahoma a year ago, and this is the first time I'm seeing my best friend from home since. We were constantly and continually ordering food and drinks (3 dishes, 6 pots of tea - 2 for her, 4 for me) the entire time (2.5 hours) we were there, and never had there been a wait for 2 people - they were seated immediately and anyone waiting was a party of 4+ that couldn't use our table anyway. So we didn't want to rush our time, and instead wanted to enjoy this amazing small tea house.

First, our check came before we asked at hour 1.5. We didn't pay until clsoe to hour 2. I ordered more tea after paying and was forced to pay cash instead of credit because there is a credit limit, but as I stated my check came early. So that's entirely an inconvenience on me as a customer.

Second, we had JUST finished drinking my teapot (hour 2.5) when the manager came over to ask us to leave becuase she needed the table. She said we could go across the street if we just wanted to continue to sit and chat (mind you, that's a rude comment to say to a paying customer that JUST paid that cash bill I mentioned, and they'd just taken it from the table not a few seconds before). Because yes, we are sitting and chatting, but we are still paying to use your facility by ordering more items and there was no wait going on for a 2 person table.

But what if I had wanted more tea, as I had just finished my pot? What if I wasn't done with the pot I had just paid for? Or, as it had actually happened, what if I wanted to order more, despite them forcing the check on us? It just baffles me to be a customer at a small restaurant like this where there was no line at the time, but be forced out and talked rudely to. I was still a paying customer, with a hot teapot in front of me, and was still ordering food and wanted more- it is not like I was sitting there with an empty table for 2 hours talking. No, I was eating. I was drinking still. I was paying to be there... and my friend was ignored for her money, too.

As much as I enjoyed this place, I am afraid to say that I would and will highly suggest no one go here if they're looking for friendly staff and to have a casual meal. Based on my experience it is attrocious - and to be honest, I can't say I'd go back based on this. I'd love to, but for what reason? They took my money and treated me and my friend...

If you are a person of color and/or LGBTQ community, PLEASE AVOID THIS PLACE. They are extremely racist; look at all the 1-star reviews left with similar experiences. It is not a one-off experience.

I typically write reviews for restaurants with a highly positive experience however, this restaurant left me feeling so disappointed and upset, as well as the rest of my group that dined there today.

Firstly, when I called numerous times to inquire about having a small group of 4 women for a ‘baby sprinkle’, a rude woman answered the phone and said “You can’t call about that right now. You gotta call after 3pm.” No manners or customer service.

When we arrived today for brunch with 2 small decorations to hang unobtrusively on their brick wall, and even promised to take down immediately after taking photos, I was given the absolute rudest response/excuse by I assume the racist manager mentioned in most of these low reviews: “No, you can’t do that. If I allow that, I’ll be setting a precedent, and we can’t be having that. We have parties here all the time, private ones, but no decorations, nope. Can’t do that” No apology, just flat out rejection with zero empathy.

We decided to stay and eat since our friend was already on her way and would be a hassle to redirect her to a kinder establishment as she’s 30+ weeks pregnant. BIG MISTAKE. We should have just left.

We received kind service from our waitress but proceeded to receive disapproving side eye glances from the manager during our entire stay, and we all felt so uncomfortable and unwelcome.

So disappointing since the place is actually quite adorable and cozy, and the food was decent. You would think a business would be thrilled that we chose them to celebrate a baby sprinkle for our close friend, instead we were treated with disdain....

While this place is cute, the atmosphere decent for a breakfast place, We just left after having a terrible experience at this restaurant, we arrived and were excited to be seated quickly. Our order was taken after waiting for 10 mins without water or greeting, the server was nice and wrote everything down.

We than began to wait, 15… 20mins… we then asked where our coffee was, 2 different servers, then another 15 mins later we received our coffees, no creamer. We then asked for creamer with another 15 minute wait. Our order was not put in so we waited another 30 mins for our food. Only half came, then another 15 mins passed and no additional food came. By the time we had finished only half of what we had actually ordered, the server was no where to be seen.

We approached the bar 3 different times to have additional help and no one responded besides having us talk to the original server, who was new to taking tables and couldn’t handle the amount of tables given to him.

By the end we asked to remove half the food from our check so we could be out the door after being here for almost 2 hours waiting. No other compensation was offered. I get being short staffed, this happens all the time in hospitality. However, as a manager, the best approach to this is to not open the entire space and have less tables. We should have been told that things were going to take time, when you stay involved with your customer, they are more inclined to wait. At the very least, giving water and coffee to hold a table down makes sense.

I’ve been in the industry for a decade, I rarely approach anyone with bad service, I just don’t return. Today, felt like they brushed us off because they couldn’t handle their kitchen and...