Raleigh Restaurant Requires Credit Card For Reservation, Then Charges $20 Per Person Who Doesn't Show
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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Gotta love the mindless drones. What's worse is that you had to wait to get mercury poisoning.
Seinfeld, four!
"Get your punk ass out of my sushi bar!!!" - G.Fresh, from
Poor restaurant will now have to learn the hard way that it's not right to screw around with customers like this.
Hello Sono, welcome to the Internet.
Cartwright? Cartwright!
This "no partial parties" policy seems particularly senseless if you have a reservation since if the restaurant had any intentions of honoring your reservation in a timely manner, they already had a table for 12 people sitting unused.
They do it at whackadoo places like Cheesecake Factory, but when you've got a 2+ hour wait and no reservations/call-ahead available, they don't want a small placeholder party to waste the table space while they wait for everyone else to show up.
So, under their dual polices of charging $20 for no-shows and not seating until all are present, could they have charged you $240 since you couldn't be seated and therefore were technically a "no-show?"
Was this a manager you were speaking to, or just the name-taking drone at the host/hostess desk?
If it was the drone, you should have escalated to a decision maker. Either way, it's foolish of the restaurant to act like that.
didn't this happen in Curb Your Enthusiam too... Sounds too familiar..
I've never heard of asking for a CC for a reservation.
Is this common?
most places i know will just void your reservation if your party doesn't show up within a specified period of time.
RDU has a surprisingly sophisticated dining scene, which frequently made for spectacular food at non-big-city prices (when I lived there), but also made for some highly amusing "big city" attitudes that didn't fly so well in a smaller southern place like RDU.
We went to the Magnolia Grill in Durham which was super-famous at the time and like the maitre d' could NOT have been trying harder to ape a bad charicature of an NYC maitre d', down to snubbing patrons he felt were not fancily dressed enough. We were giggling into our food the whole evening from his antics. There was this aura of desperation because the maitre d' was trying soooooooo hard to be hip.
After that we stuck to restaurants that were just as tasty but not nearly as famous, that were friendly to all their customers and not trying to be so hip it hurt.
Sounds like this place would suit that maitre d' just fine. :P
Wait, so if you have a huge party, and just one person cancels out. They not only charge you $20 for that person, they won't seat you so they can try and charge you $20 each when you leave in frustration?
if this is hibachi, i can understand why they won't seat partial parties. the chef cooks all the meals at once, so it's rather impossible to serve latecomers.
was the OP's intention to pay the $40 & then have the late couple join the festivities? or did he intend on telling the late couple to find somewhere else to eat?
i don't agree with the $20 no-show policy, but i do agree with a restaurant's refusal to seat an incomplete party. at a restaurant, the most valuable real estate is large party tables, not the tiny bar wairing area.
@eightfifteen: I just tell them my whole party is there. If they ask anything when we get to the table, I say theyre in the bathroom. Never had a problem!
I'm an intern at an event planning company and deal with a lot of reservations at restaurants. It isn't uncommon to require a credit card upon reservations, especially with a larger party. I believe the cut off at most places is 8. Since they're losing a lot of money of lost space, it's not uncommon to levy a fee for missed reservations.
I'd like the charge back roll please.
So yeah, all in all, this isn't really a big deal.
meh. you're not missing out on anything anyways... their sushi is sub-par. you'd never see a Japanese person there unless he had white friends who insisted on it... and even then, he'd order a noodle dish instead.
always follow Japanese people to sushi restaurants... it's like asking a fat guy where to get the best burger in town. me being Japanese, I only go to Japanese restaurants where the majority of the patrons are Japanese... it ensures the food is more authentic.
This has become very common amongst popular LA restaurants. I supposed the logic is that if an incomplete party is seated then the rest might not show --the restaurant could have filled those seats-- or the others arrive after the orders been placed and inconvenience the wait-staff.
Having worked in several restaurants in my youth, I can admit that seating partial parties are annoying for those reasons. However, a skilled waiter knows how to make lemons out of lemonade. ;-)
"smaller southern place like RDU."
Where is this RDU you speak of? It's the airport.
Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill are usually called "The Research Triangle Area."
It's the Comcast of the restaurant world!
I won't give a CC# for a restaurant rez. Ever.
@mac-phisto:
They could have sit the party and waited until the 2 other people showed up before the chef came to the table to make their food.
If the table is just sitting there empty why not seat them and let them wait at the table?
@Ausoleil:
Frequent travelers often use airport codes as shorthand. Non-frequent travelers get tripped up by airport codes like ORD, MSY, MCO and MDT. And don't get me started on Canadian airport codes.
It seems to make a lot of sense to me why they wouldn't just charge him the $40 and seat the incomplete party. After all, he just told them the couple would be arriving soon. He would no doubt want that $40 back when they got there. That would then just mean that they got seated as an incomplete party. Seems like simple reasoning to me.
Frankly, I think the idea of charging for people missing a reservation is assinine but then again, we should let the punishment fit the crime. You want to dine somewhere fru-fru, you deal with their stupid rules.
so... no. I won't eat there.
@Ausoleil: actually, we usually just say raleigh. durham. or chapel hill. since its rare you are actually in all three at once.
RDU & 'The Triangle' are both acceptable for douchebags and otherwise.
Yes because white people don't know sushi right? Give me a break doakie.
Actually, just forget I said anything. Since your comment was not written in Japanese, you probably don't know what you're talking about. Since Japanese people don't know english. It's like asking a skinny guy what the best burger in town is right?
So long, Sono Raleigh! The Internets is gonna get you! (and put you out of business)
The restaurant run by losers.
@r081984: the table probably isn't just sitting there empty - that's the point. if your party is not ready, but another large party comes in that is, who deserves to be seated first?
esp. with hibachi, the table is filled with multiple parties, so an "empty table" is simply one that hasn't had sufficient customers assigned to it. the OP may have mistaken an empty table for their empty table.
If the restaurant does some sort of table side meal preparation I could see why they would want everyone there before they seat them. But the person at the front desk could have easily explained this and solved the entire problem.
I have a major issue with so many restaurants not taking reservations any longer. If the wait is more than 15 minutes they should be taking reservations.
Don't get me started on the pretentious customer abuse that some restaurants seem to think is part of the experience.
So you make a reservation for 12, and 2 haven't yet arrived. They will seat the 10 if you pay a $40 fee for the missing diners.
Or you can wait until all 12 are present and then be seated. They will hold the table for how long?
Or the 10 of you can just leave and they lose all the business.
I've never heard of this sort of policy. Normally, the 10 would be seated and they would start selling you drinks and appys until the others arrive.
I worked for a company based out of RTP from 1981 through 2001 and although there was clearly a upward trend in sophistication, I never felt there was that sort of snootiness. Certainly not in Raleigh. Maybe in Cary (Concentrated Area for Relocated Yankees).
Favorite restaurant in Raleigh...Peddler Steak House.
@bohemian:
I have a major issue with so many restaurants not taking reservations any longer. If the wait is more than 15 minutes they should be taking reservations.
you're not kidding. i stopped eating at places that would rather hand me a vibrating garage clicker when i walk in than take a freaking reservation over the phone.
usually i don't even make reservations, but if i'm going to a classy joint on a weekend, i'll have them put my name in the book.
I live in Raleigh - my husband and I ate at particular small tapas restaurant in the Glenwood South district about a year ago. Great food - terrible hostess. She seated us at 7:30 (our reserved time), and leaned in and said, "Your table is reserved for another couple at 9pm, so we will need you to be finished up before then." I nearly fell out of my chair. When our server arrived, we told her what we'd been told, and the couple at the next table overheard and said they'd been told the same thing. To the server's and restaurant's credit, she was horrified and said she'd tell the manager. I'm not sure what happened after that. Hopefully the hostess lost her job.
A lot of the smaller, more popular restaurants here in Portland don't take reservations because they'd go out of business in a month if they did. If you've got less than 50 seats, you can't turn enough covers to make your nut if you're holding tables for reservations. Even taking CC info and charging for no shows isn't as lucrative as making people wait.
Fortunately, there's this thing called choice, where you can choose not to patronize restos with a no reservations policy. One place here (Lauro, I think) recently started taking reservations after a remodel.
I lived in raleigh for twenty years and hardly ever went to durham or chapel hill..bunch of crime in one and a bunch of hairy legged granolas in the other.
The website looks painfully trendy, as does the fusion-laden menu. I don't think I'd ever consider going to "Sono," but this definitely seals the deal.
FWIW, the best authentic Japanese food in Raleigh is at Waraji.
@mac-phisto:
Dead on about the Hibachi style grills, it's pretty much standard policy for the reasons he mentions.
@qwickone & r081984:
Think about what your lie is costing not just you and your party but the momentum of the establishment. Once they start seating people at a Hibachi style grill, they've got around 15 minutes to finish seating before they close off the table so that the meal can get started. If they held the table open so that a late couple could arrive, then it delays the chef which then delays the entire table and it'll also mess up the rotation for the remaining chefs (e.g., chef A has to wait an extra 10 minutes for the first table to finish seating so his turnaround after cooking puts him 1~2 tables behind the other chefs, less tables served equals less tips equals less potential pay). Talk about screwing over a business because people can't be punctual.
@ceejeemcbeegee:
I suppose that's true for LA and it would hold up well if a resturant was going to seat incomplete parties and not fill the missing seats. As an alternative practice, some places try to arrange/direct customers to "fill out" tables so there isn't potential renuve lost. And as a practical matter, it may work out if the consumer wants to pay more for privacy... but utlimately the problem will come down to general satisfaction of the folks left in the waiting area... folks might get upset that rich elite get a table all to themselves while the rest have to "share".
P.S.: My opinions may be jaded as I've worked for one of these Hibachi-style places...just my $.02
Was this reservation for a private room? I work in a fine dining restaurant in Baton Rouge, and we have designated minimums for each private room. The philosophy behind it is that we are turning away business to allow a group to have one. Drug reps are NOTORIOUS for this...
@bohemian: I concur completely. I would have expected the host/hostess to explain (or at least attempt to explain) the situation or company policy. Failing that, it would have been prudent to inform supervisor/management to speak with the upset customer.
@r081984: Additionally, there is momentum problem with the suggestion you offered.
Most hibachi-style restaurants have a time frame for the approximate use time of a table. Typically, it's something like from the first party being seated at a table, there is a 15 minute window where the host/hostess can seat that table. After which, the servers descend to take final orders (drinks/appetizers may have been taken before hand) and submit it all to the chef. At which point, chefs have a limited time frame to assemble the required ingredients for the table's meal during which soup and salad are served. Once the chef gets to the table he/she has about 35~40 minutes to finish his show before heading back in to prep. for the next table (usually assigned by a rotation).
So what's the momentum problem? Say the restaurant seats but doesn't close the table and starts seating a different table. The chef who is on standby for the first table may be delayed enough that he/she misses out on a rotation (equals less potential tips/pay). Next, there's the issue of the complications in timing. It's easier to work with an established system (seated, table closed, orders taken, etc.) then to try to have tables up in the air with different (table A is seated but waiting for 2 more, B is ready to go but needs chef from table E which was started late because they were waiting for 1 latecomer, etc.).
To some this may not be a big problem, but it's a headache that restaurants deal with all the time because at the end of the day, customer satisfaction equals repeat/referral business.
Scumbag tactics.