Fiddler International Dining — Restaurant in West Bloomfield Township

I have been coming here for many years as a loyal customer bringing in much business and enjoying their food and dance in the big room. I made a reservation 1 week prior for my birthday, and called to confirm the day before. A big party. It was specified over the phone (my friend called with me by his side) that we were in the BIG room (as there are two sides to the restaurant, a big room with a dance floor and nice music, and a smaller side with no dance floor and with good but smaller and different music in the corner). We specified both times we called the music with the dance floor so I could enjoy my birthday party. Dancing was very important to me. We mentioned that. I come often enough to know almost the entire serving staff and the owner by their first names. That is why this situation was so unfortunate. :(

I showed up tonight, excited to celebrate my birthday with my big party of people ready to enjoy their night and spend money... Instead, we walked into the big room with the dancing to find a wedding taking up the whole room... It was a private event. That I then found out they had known about for 2 weeks... That gave them plenty of time to tell me both times I called that I couldn’t be getting the room and standards I wanted. Especially since it was the owner, himself, taking and adding to our reservation.

I did not want to stay with my group of 16 people to eat at a place where we would not get to dance at all, even though we planned on it, and I felt really hurt for a place I have been coming for years and am on first-name basis with, to treat me so in personally...

But, I would have stayed. Until I asked what compensation we could receive for our inconvenience. We would have stayed if they had been apologetic (the server was, not the owner himself, who did not bother to come out to me and solve the problem... I guess he was too busy with the wedding he had known about for 2 weeks...) They offered to move the small room tables to we could “dance” in that room... by ourselves... with small music... without a dance floor... creeping around other people’s tables... I said no. We may have stayed, still, if they had offered us some apology and compensation (a gift card for ruining my completely organized and planned birthday? A discount if we had stayed tonight?? I know the service industry, so I know that DEFINITELY they could have done something, ANYTHING to show me respect and to compensate.

It was quite hurtful, actually, it made me so sad I couldn’t comprehend why a business would treat patrons in such a way, especially since I had been coming there and bringing in new business for years(((

While the food was usually in good shape, I am just so sad. I no longer think that this restaurant has people you would want to be dealing with. In the service industry, you really cannot be that way. It just poorly represents you and your whole company. Now I wonder about more than just this night... People who behave that way often make many more moves that treat their employees and customers poorly. I guess I am just now seeing it. :(

Just...

We started the dinner with the traditional Russian shot of vodka with the pickles on pumpernickel bread which was an interesting way to have a shot of vodka and was a lot of fun. We also order the Baltika 3 which is a light Russian beer that was great for the hot summer day when we were here. Next, we had the Russian summer salad which has tomatoes, cucumbers, fresh cilantro and red onions. The vegetables were very fresh and full of flavor, great light salad to start the dinner with. The borscht (beet soup) came next with sour cream on the side. Surprising the soup was very tasty (especially for beet soup) and the sour cream was a great touch. The meat pierogies were baked in a pastry crust that was very flaky and ended up being too much dough for the little bit of meat (I prefer pierogies in a noodle type of dough). For the main entrees we tried the half order of lamb chops and pozharski cutlets. The lamb was cooked perfectly with just the right amount of crust on the outside and was served with sweet tomato garnish. The pozharski cutlets were basically ground chicken meat combined with spices that were made into patties that were cooked and were served with a mushroom sauce. The chicken patties were very flavorful and moist (I do not enjoy dry chicken). Last we had the Napoleon Fiddler dessert which is a 7 layer vanilla cake with raspberry drizzle. The cake layers are made out of pastry dough and the filling was similar to that of a cream puff. The combination was excellent and one of my most favorite desserts I...

Found out about this restaurant through Groupon, had dinner there today. Ate the best borsht I've ever had, devoured the lamb chops and pounded them potatoes (although I'd go with the chicken next time - portion size was a little larger), and the dessert... That napoleon thing is excellent. I loved the food. I don't know how the guy below me could complain about the serving size of the groupon deal - you get a borscht, a salad, perogies, an entree, and a desert - it' was a 5 course meal! :D :P

My service was excellent although the waiter was Russian and I remember a time where I had to ask him to repeat something. This isn't really a problem at all to me - I'd rather have Russian staff at a Russian restaurant that really knows the food and can answer questions. We also talked to the manager and he told us about coming to America, working, and then finally creating his dream - this restaurant.

I love this place, 5/5, will be coming here again for my birthday. Only qualm is that they are only open Fri, Sat, and Sun so I can't get a lunch portion there...