It’s common for restaurants to not seat a party until everyone has arrived, but here’s something we’ve never seen before: requiring a credit card to make the reservation, then charging $20 per person who doesn’t show up—but still refusing to seat an incomplete party. When Matthew tried to get his party of ten seated without two of the people—basically saying he’d pay the $40 to get out of the bar and at a table—management refused. We think this restaurant doesn’t like its patrons very much.
This Saturday night a friend of mine was turning 30 and one of our group of friends made reservations for 12 at a new Sushi restaurant in Raleigh called Sono.
I had not been there before – but in the email that let everyone one know where and when to meet we were told that everyone had to be there before they could seat us all. I understand this policy (sort of). When we arrived there was one couple missing and thus there were ten of us at the small bar waiting. We received a call from the missing couple saying that they were having trouble parking but they were on their way.
While we were waiting I talked to my friend who had made there reservations and said we should be asked to be seated since we are taking up room at this small bar (which was and also badly managed since only about 4 of us got served a drink) and blocking the way for people who were being seated since the bar was between the door and the dinning area. My friend said that when she made the reservations she was asked to give her credit card number and that she would be charged $20 for every person who did not show up. This seemed like a contradiction.
So I went up to the front of house and asked that we be seated – I explained that 10 out of the 12 were there and that the other couple where on their way. The bored response I received was “this is not our policy” – you must have the total number of people to be present before we could be seated.I pointed out that we were talking up valuable bar real estate and blocking the way for the rest of the customers and it would make more sense to have up seated out the empty table that was set up for us. Again the same bored response. I then suggested that they follow their other policy which was to charge my credit card $40 if the couple did not show up, I was willing to risk it. They said they could not do that either. I asked them if that made sense – I was hoping they would answer that it was not their policy. But instead I was told that again I would have to wait for all members of our party to show up etc etc… There is really nothing to say after that and so I went back to our party, the couple arrived and eventually we were seated.
My wife wrote on their feedback ticket this issue – but I just found the issue funny and annoying – especially in this economy and especially if you are a restaurant – when you are new you are busy but 4 months down the road it will only be repeat business that keeps these places open and I will not visit there again.
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Enh. With plenty of other wonderful sushi places in Raleigh, and plenty of fantastic dining options in general in the Fayetteville St. area, I would have told them to take a hike the moment they asked for my credit card number.
Asking for a credit card for reservations, especially for parties over 8 is not uncommon. This is especially true when the restaurant is popular and/or small. I work at a cozy restaurant now, and the seating of complete parties makes sense as each reservation has an allotted time to eat (and no we would never tell the guest they have only a certain amount of time to eat), but when you seat incomplete parties, and it never takes the 5 or 10 minutes for the missing people to show up, then you have kitchen confusion, server confusion, and spillage over onto your later reservations. It takes up extra time for all parties, remember you aren’t the only people dining in the restaurant.
I do believe that the hostess should have attempted to explain the restaurant’s policy better.
@Ausoleil: Yes, but I figured out-of-towners could deal with RDU better than RTP and I wasn’t typing either one out.
Anyhoo, since we’re doing it, favorite spendy food in Durham was @ Four Square. (Also that little French place down near 40, towards the new mall, that’s in a building that used to be a McDonald’s. Cannot for the life of me remember the name. Don’t know if it’s still there or not.)
Favorite bar, Tir na nOg, on the square in Raleigh. Had my rehearsal dinner there, even. (Also fond of Rum Runners, but mostly when I’d been pre-drinking.)
Why can’t people ever spell “DINING” correctly?
@Mr. Gunn:
You still use a landline? Weird.
Lol:)
Serves you right for trying to patronize some crappy trendy place.
It’s just like at the trendy bars and clubs in NYC. If you try to get in with a group of all guys, good freakin’ luck. If you show up with some women in your group, watch as your female friends get let in and you get refused entry.
It’s the consumers that put certain places up on pedastals that allows those places to get away with crap. You don’t see your neighborhood diner or Applebee’s doing this, because they wouldn’t be able to get away with it. They would lose too much business. But everyone’s dying to get into the trendy place.
I’m not sure if this would work, but I’m just going to throw this out there.
With my Mastercard, you can go online and generate a different credit card number — the number maps back to your account, but it can only be used by one merchant and you can set a low limit on it (like $20).
So I’m wondering what would happen if you gave this number to the restaurant when you made the reservation. Probably get you thrown out if they figured out what you were up to.
It might be easier just to go to someplace that likes their customers.
I think the hostess handled it poorly but the point is if you have a reservation be on time. If you can’t be on time, don’t be annoyed when things do not go your way. Scheduling tables in a restaurant is difficult enough when things go smoothly. Throw in a couple of people that don’t realize reservations expire (or should) and it gets really dicey.
I was at a Morrocan restaurant for a friend’s birthday. We had reservations for 10 at 8:30. Everyone from our party arrived on time (namely because we went for drinks at another bar prior) but we couldn’t be seated because a party of 24 (I kid you not) had about 8 people still coming but had already been seated.
The one 6 top that was originally intended as ours was also occupied by people that really liked to draw out their meal. I’m talking 40 minutes for coffee and dessert. We finally were seated about half an hour late. The manager and owner was completely clueless as to why we were so annoyed with him.
Those guys should hit Sushi Tsune instead on Hillsborough. Better place and better price. Just don’t hit it around Memorial Day weekend unless you like weirdos.
Yeah the college staples in Raleigh are so much better than the fancy places. Of all the $30+ dinners I’ve had with my girlfriend in those trendy restaurants downtown, I’ve always hated the service. Always. That makes it Cookout FTW.
The Palm restaurant in San Diego charges $50/person for every no-show. And it’s not a hibachi place. It was really lame.
@afw: The only time that happened to me was a tiny Italian restaurant in Boston’s North End. We figured it was reserved for the Mafia afterwards and it was important. If that ever happened to me here, I’d laugh.
@arstal: I would also recommend Waraji off Duraleigh, and Sushi-Thai, either in Cary or off Lake Boone Trail. Waraji is better but Sushi-Thai is still good and cheaper.
Even Tyler’s Taproom (damn good pub in Durham) won’t seat incomplete parties, but that’s because they’re always packed. They don’t take your credit card number and charge you $20 if people don’t show up, though. You just have to wait longer. Jeez.
Damn, there are a lot of Triangleites on Consumerist! Let’s go for dinner! Not at Sono!
@Blackneto: @BigElectricCat: Many high-end restaurants require a credit card for a reservation and strictly enforce the no-show fee, either for the entire party or for certain guests (like in this case). However, this restaurant seems unique (read: fucked up) because they want to charge you for the no-shows AND still not seat you. In my experience, restaurants will charge the no-show and then seat the rest of the party.
The comments mentioned that the restaurant in question might a hibachi restaurant. I used to be a hostess at a hibachi restaurant, and we never had those policies. I mean, we often didn’t fill all 12 seats at every hibachi table. We just seated as many people as we could accommodate, and then let the chef do his thing. If business was slow, the chef could be cooking for much less than a table of 12.
If it’s really a party of 12 with 2 people missing, usually the group doesn’t necessarily mind waiting for the other 2 at the bar; even if they were seated, they wouldn’t necessarily get served until someone at the table tells us to start. When you have chefs flicking things around with the smell of hibachi wafting over from other tables, they don’t generally wait very long.
At the the point they got all squinky I would of just left. Let them try to charge the credit card for the missing guests (240.00 Dollars), then just file a complaint in small claims, they would totally settle before it went before the judge.
@snowmentality:
I fear for any restaurant that took on a group of Consumeristos!
just dont sign the check and their for, not agreeing to the bill.
@Ausoleil: THREADJACK!!
I went to high school and college in the area and I have never heard anyone use the term “the Research Triangle area”. If I’d heard that, I’d assume you’re referring to that big patch of grass between Raleigh and Durham with all the shiny buildings. “The Triangle” or “the Triangle area”, maybe, but never “research triangle”.
And I can understand out of towners referring to it as RDU, since that’s the airport code and all. FWIW, I use DFW to refer to that area in Texas with all the strip joints.
BTW, I’m perfectly okay with a no-show penalty, though obviously not so heavyhandedly enforced. I know it’s a common-ish practice in NYC to book reservations at multiple restaurants.
@humphrmi:
Actually , it’s more like a restaurant run by an airline…
If you plan on paying their “no-show fee,” try this instead: Find two people waiting in the bar and offer to pay them each $10 (or buy them drinks) to act as the last two of the party. When you get seated, they leave, and you tell the waiters that the other two people are in the restroom or taking phone calls outside.
This place sounds like the owner thinks it’s Nobu and s/he can get away with silly policies like this. The restaurant biz is tough, and if there are enough dissatisfied customers, the place will go down in a ball of epic fail.
@BigElectricCat: YYZ? YOW? YVR?
The recently opened Water Bar in San Francisco has the same policy. Too bad… their oysters were good but i can’t patronize this type of practice.
How about a list of places doing the same?
Common practice here in San Francisco – reservations at places like Zuni are hard to come by and serious customers don’t make them if they don’t plan on showing up.
So, the rest of the party was outside parking and Matthew is ticked off because they didn’t seat the rest of his party immediately? He got into an argument with the hostess because he didn’t want to wait for the rest of his party to park and come inside before they were seated? Sounds like he’s overreacting to me.
I’m with a few people — if you got charged the $40, charge back.
What I can’t figure out is: they had ten people to sit — a large party ALREADY that would bring them income…especially when most places will charge the 15-18% gratuity automatically. Idiots!
Just to clarify
1. It was not a hibachi restaurant – there was no ‘at table service’.
2. I was offering to pay the $40 only if the other two did not show up – this makes sense right? if they show up in fifteen minutes they are still going to order dinner and drinks and probably get a whole other round of drinks out of us and if they don’t then charge me.
3. The table was empty and in the middle of the room.
4. I would have been happy to wait at the bar except for three reasons 1. No one could get served at the bar – the bar staff seemed overwhelmed/not paying attention 2. It was an awful space to mingle since we were effectively blocking the entrance from door/ waiting area to the dinning room thus we had to move/reconfigure every time the hostesses were showing people to their seats. So my suggestion would have been helpful to all – I felt bad for the other customers and staff squeezing to get past us. 3. Their double bind of no seating without the reservation and threatening to charge us if we did not have the full tally of the reservations seemed offensive as did their attitude.
The funny thing that I found was that we actually ended up with a table for 14 with two free chairs since people sat at the ends – I would have been interested to see their reaction if we invited more friends to join us…
What a darned shame. Especially since the concierge of a well established Triangle area business hotel reads this and will now not recommend this restaurant to any hotel guests.
Oh, in NYC, Tortilla Flats does this too, for large parties. I’ve totally heard of it, and it’s a shitty rule for people who have flaky friends.
i never have to worry about crap like this happening at biscuitville!
stick to sushi blues on glenwood for casual or än in cary if you want an elegant experience. snooty sono wont be there for more than 2 years if douchebags are running it. we have other, better options.
support southern hospitality!
I’ve been to SONO. The place is new, the space is very small, and the hostess was a little overwhelmed the night I was there too. However, the people were nice and the food was awesome. I worked as a waiter for a long time and the worst thing is people making reservations for big parties, so the waiter has to hand their tables off to other staff and then the party either doesn’t show or comes with half of what they reserved. If you can’t get everyone there on time then you should wait like the rest of us. Reservations are for people who want to reserve a table and have solid plans. Again hate to see people bully this place, its really small and 12 seats is probably about one section for a waiter so I understand.
I am the operator of SONO. I frequently visit review sites in order to keep up with customers opinions so that we can serve our customers better. I apologize for any problems that might have occured but I specifically remember that evening. I actually remember the gentlemens face for that matter. We have changed our reservation policy and do not require a credit card number to make one any longer. We will do whatever we can to satisfy our customers. But I would like to clear something up. We have NEVER charged any customers any amount ever for not showing up. Nor did we tell anyone that we would charge $20 each for who ever did not show up. Our previous policy was that we “could” charge $20 per person in the event of “no call no show” and that is exactly how we explained it. I apologize and have changed the policy to not require a credit card to make a reservation, but I don’t think making false accusations is fair to us or the consumers. If I am wrong and someone did charge Mr.Matthew, we will pay back 100 times the amount we charged as an apology. Once again I apologize for any inconvenience and will strive to better our service.