Chicago Kalbi and Chiyo Service Quality

Last night I finally had the opportunity to eat at Chicago Kalbi, allowing me to evaluate my experiences at both their restaurants. There is no denying the great quality and taste of their food but such cannot be said about their service quality. I've been to Chiyo for both their sushi and sukiyaki about 5x since February and despite the friendly demeanor of the staff, their attentiveness and competence is questionable. 3x out of the 5x, I had to constantly request refills of water, remind the waitress that our entrees came with soup and salads (after our entrees were delivered), and continually ask for our checks after several failed attempts. Some of these times we were one of only three tables in the whole restaurant.

I will note that on one occassion the Owner (the older Asian lady with glasses that can actually speak English unlike our actual waittress) gave us free dessert to remedy the situation but this was after she accused us of having ordered a spicy salmon roll when we indeed told the waitress three times that we wanted a spicy salmon hand roll not maki at a time when the Owner wasn't (so how could she have claimed that we did order the maki?). I thought that maybe the service at Chiyo was an isolated phenomenon attributable to the unqualified waittress hired but it seems to be a systemic thing because despite the great food I had at Chicago Kalbi last night, the service experience exactly mirrored my past Chiyo experiences despite different wait staff.

I for one will probably revisit these locations for I can overlook these faults but this should serve as a warning for those LTHers who are sticklers about the service as much as they are the food.