I have a Groupon deal for dinner for them and a brunch one from Living Social. I was originally looking forward to this place since friends had recommend it. The reviews and yelp have been scaring me as of late though. I tried making a reservation several times for brunch. I have left a messages just to not get a call back. Called during business hours as well and no one has answered. I finally contacted Groupon today for a refund for my dinner certificate, not that it sounds like I would have had a good dinner anyways. I'm sure this place won't be around much longer.

John Danza wrote:

kj8181 wrote:

Tobermory wrote:Are they still open? I left a message yesterday about a reservation for Friday and no-one called me back. The message was a bit out of date (info about Dads dining free on Father's Day). I tried calling back just not (2pm) and their machine is now full.

Good riddance if they are...surliest meal I've ever had.

Pretty interesting introductory post. Would you like to elaborate, or is this just a drive-by flaming?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, & if I'd been overly enthusiastic I'd be a "shill." Sorry - been reading this forum for 5 years, I should've known better.

Anyway...asked server what was on the tasting menu, he said "chef's choice." Asked again (very politely) if he could give us at least an idea, he went back to kitchen & we heard someone yell "Tell them they get what I give them!" Probably should've cut out then, because what we were given was pretty bad...don't remember details, just a barrage of overcooked meat, soupy risotto, limp salad, things swimming in acrid tasting truffle oil, all served at lightening speed with no regard to timing & accompanied by the sounds of ranting & expletives coming from someone in the kitchen. The one highlight was the low price, but we did indeed get what we paid for.

kj8181 wrote:Good riddance if they are...surliest meal I've ever had.

Pretty interesting introductory post. Would you like to elaborate, or is this just a drive-by flaming?[/quote]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, & if I'd been overly enthusiastic I'd be a "shill." Sorry - been reading this forum for 5 years, I should've known better.

quote]


Meet the new LTHForum, same as the old LTHForum

This is a perfect example of how this forum should try to change for the better.

kj8181 wrote:Yeah, yeah, yeah, & if I'd been overly enthusiastic I'd be a "shill." Sorry - been reading this forum for 5 years, I should've known better.

LOL . . . truer words.

Every time I see a post here about S&S I expect it to be the one announcing that the place has officially closed. I have absolutely no knowledge of what's going on there but the overall momentum of accounts of the place has been decidedly downhill for quite some time now.

=R=

It's been on the market for awhile now. My work email gets spammed all the time by restaurant brokers. Restaurant and the building were listed a few weeks back.

I went to S&S on Saturday for brunch. I'd also tried calling and checking the website several times to find out their hours for brunch, but got no answer, so I'd stopped by ahead of time to check (I live a couple of blocks away right now). The night I stopped in (Thursday, I think), there were maybe 4 tables occupied.

It was my first visit, and I'd read good things about it on this board in the past (unfortunately I'd missed the more recent posts, because it had been on my "to try" list for awhile), but I was disappointed with our meal. We did the brunch prix fixe, which for $16 includes coffee/tea, appetizer, entree, and a basket of pastries.

The pastries were a bit lackluster: a small blueberry muffin (nothing special, and a bit too sweet for our liking), a heavily iced cinnamon roll (which would have been better warm), and some ruggelach-like cinnamony-twists (that's the technical description, clearly), which were good.

My mom got the oatmeal and the bacon risotto; I got the butternut squash soup and mushroom/fontina omelet. The oatmeal was lukewarm and quite watery, though the flavor was nice. The butternut squash soup was very thin and had some melted bleu cheese in it (I believe). I'm really not a fan of bleu cheese (some foodie I am!) and would have appreciated knowing it would be included beforehand!

The omelet was fine -- no complaints there. It came with one slice of white buttered toast, which, again, I would have preferred to know, as I might have at least requested something whole grain. My mom's risotto was quite good.

The service was sub-par: the hostess, also the waitress, didn't seem to have any knowledge of the menu (didn't know the difference between black and decaf black tea, and wasn't able to make a recommendation to diners next to us who asked for one).

All in all, I wouldn't return -- there are too many other great places for brunch in this city!

I tried to get a refund for my Groupon and was sent the following message:

I'm very sorry for any inconvenience or confusion. We do stand by the businesses we feature. If there is a problem or you have a poor experience, just reach out to us to let us know. We're more than happy to refund you - that's exactly why we offer our Groupon Promise. We would not feature a business we thought you would have a poor experience with, but we are more than happy to help you out should you have a problem using your Groupon.

We encourage you to try this business - we think it's worth trying. If you do have a bad experience when using your Groupon, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

It sounds like Groupon is okay with issuing refunds post-redemption. At the very least, I guess we will be able to provide another data point on the merits of Sweets & Savories.

shyne

Interesting. I asked Groupon for a credit for my S&S Groupon and they issued it immediately. I wonder if it matters if you ask for a credit or refund.

FWIW I asked for a refund on the Virgin America Groupons we purchased since we now can't travel during the allowed dates and they offered me credit only.

From my experience, if the place closes, you get a refund. If you didn't like/can't use/don't want to use, I think it's generally a credit.

Well, we did go after all to use the Groupon - it was edible, but that's about all I can say for it. One lone waitress, who was trying her best, and one busboy - in spite of their best efforts, they were totally overwhelmed. Bread was stale, endive and watercress salad had absolutely no dressing or seasoning of any kind and more watercress stems than anything else. Lobster risotto was no way just cooked - the texture bore no resemblance to risotto whatsoever. It tasted good, but then as a survivor of Soviet dorm food I'm not terribly fussy, and hey, if you throw enough butter in anything it generally tastes good. We didn't stick around for dessert.

For the sake of the Groupon folks not losing their shirts, I'm not sorry we didn't ask for a refund on the Groupon, but for $70 (including the cost of the Groupon itself but not including the cost of our bottle of wine), we could have had some pretty fabulous dinner in any number of places. I won't be back there.

Frankly, given the other developments outlined elsewhere in this thread, I am left wondering if the owner simply used the cash from the Groupon, combined with goodwill reserves, to raise money for the new place.

Eva Luna wrote:For the sake of the Groupon folks not losing their shirts, I'm not sorry we didn't ask for a refund on the Groupon...

Yeah, right. Won't someone think about those poor, poor Groupon folks. Good one.
--Rich

Good riddance if they are...surliest meal I've ever had.[/quote]

Pretty interesting introductory post. Would you like to elaborate, or is this just a drive-by flaming?[/quote]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, & if I'd been overly enthusiastic I'd be a "shill." Sorry - been reading this forum for 5 years, I should've known better.

Anyway...asked server what was on the tasting menu, he said "chef's choice." Asked again (very politely) if he could give us at least an idea, he went back to kitchen & we heard someone yell "Tell them they get what I give them!" Probably should've cut out then, because what we were given was pretty bad...don't remember details, just a barrage of overcooked meat, soupy risotto, limp salad, things swimming in acrid tasting truffle oil, all served at lightening speed with no regard to timing & accompanied by the sounds of ranting & expletives coming from someone in the kitchen. The one highlight was the low price, but we did indeed get what we paid for.[/quote]
forgot to add - in addition to my dismal dining experience, accounts of the owner's "business practices" and treatment of employees doesn't make me a fan of Sweets & Savories either.
Again, good riddance.

RAB wrote:

Eva Luna wrote:For the sake of the Groupon folks not losing their shirts, I'm not sorry we didn't ask for a refund on the Groupon...

Yeah, right. Won't someone think about those poor, poor Groupon folks. Good one.
--Rich

Suit yourself. I took my chance, and lost, and I'm ready to live with that lesson. It's certainly not Groupon's fault that the restaurant has gone downhill, so in the end I wasn't comfortable penalizing them for it.

If you guys were trying to scare me, you succeeded. I called Groupon and they politely issued a refund without issue.

Eva Luna wrote:Frankly, given the other developments outlined elsewhere in this thread, I am left wondering if the owner simply used the cash from the Groupon, combined with goodwill reserves, to raise money for the new place.

Yikes! We are supposed to go next week? Had you eaten there before? We ate there after Christmas & it was still fine, not feeling confident with this recent meal there.

I think I'm phoning it in to Groupon.

pairs4life wrote:

Eva Luna wrote:Yikes! We are supposed to go next week? Had you eaten there before? We ate there after Christmas & it was still fine, not feeling confident with this recent meal there.

I think I'm phoning it in to Groupon.

I've hiistorically liked S&S, but the last couple of times I went it was definitely going downhill. With the recent reports, I wouldn't waste a night out on it. There are too many other really nice BYOBs. I would recommend getting your refund, and then get a reservation for someplace like HB Home Bistro or Glenn's Diner.

pairs4life wrote:

Eva Luna wrote:Frankly, given the other developments outlined elsewhere in this thread, I am left wondering if the owner simply used the cash from the Groupon, combined with goodwill reserves, to raise money for the new place.

Yikes! We are supposed to go next week? Had you eaten there before? We ate there after Christmas & it was still fine, not feeling confident with this recent meal there.

I think I'm phoning it in to Groupon.

Yeah, we'd been there a couple of times before and really enjoyed it. Last time before the most recent was maybe a year ago. I am mostly just sad - I had been looking forward to taking out-of-town guests there.

Kept our reservation. It's a bit sad. There was nothing wrong with our food...except it was completely forgettable, unlike the meal we had back in late December.

The food is serviceable and the phone rang of the hook as folks were still trying to get in during the final days of the Groupon, they extended it a week.

I can't go for a renewal of this GNR, assuming it's still here when the time comes for renewal.

Really, really sad.

I kind of hate to pile on, but hey, data points are important. We went back in December... in need of a fallback plan, I remembered all of the wonderful things that have been said about S&S over the years, so we dropped in for a surprisingly forgettable meal. Uninspiring beet salad, underpowered and undersalted mushroom risotto, a similarly flat and bland pasta, bacon-wrapped fish with a lovely pea puree (though oddly out of season) that might have hit had the fish not been overcooked, and creme brulee with soupy, warm cream.

One meal, a few days before Christmas, but upon getting home I double-checked to make sure we hadn't ended up at the wrong place.

Eva Luna wrote:Frankly, given the other developments outlined elsewhere in this thread, I am left wondering if the owner simply used the cash from the Groupon, combined with goodwill reserves, to raise money for the new place.

As an FYI or perhaps word of warning, the new place, Bluette, was one of the Groupon offerings yesterday or Monday.

Matt wrote:As an FYI or perhaps word of warning, the new place, Bluette, was one of the Groupon offerings yesterday or Monday.

Yesterday. I took it as a sign that our meal would be the same level it used to be.

Matt wrote:

Eva Luna wrote:Frankly, given the other developments outlined elsewhere in this thread, I am left wondering if the owner simply used the cash from the Groupon, combined with goodwill reserves, to raise money for the new place.

As an FYI or perhaps word of warning, the new place, Bluette, was one of the Groupon offerings yesterday or Monday.

Yeah, I saw. Hubby is in favor of boycotting it on general principle.

Yikes. They're re-upping - today's Groupon.

Doing another Groupon is just wrong. I feel sorry for the people that don't know the status of this restaurant.

verno6000 wrote:Doing another Groupon is just wrong. I feel sorry for the people that don't know the status of this restaurant.

It's convenient that Groupon doesn't link to the yelp reviews this time around...

clogoodie wrote:

verno6000 wrote:Doing another Groupon is just wrong. I feel sorry for the people that don't know the status of this restaurant.

It's convenient that Groupon doesn't link to the yelp reviews this time around...

Groupon has a comment feature however. I just posted a comment and put in a link to this thread. Unfortunately, 300 groupons have already been purchased.

Out of curiosity, is Sweets & Savories still a GNR? Is it up for renewal/review? If not, it probably should be, based on the past year's nearly unanimous bad reports, as well as the somewhat questionable business practices of the owner.

Thanks in advance.

sundevilpeg wrote:Out of curiosity, is Sweets & Savories still a GNR? Is it up for renewal/review? If not, it probably should be, based on the past year's nearly unanimous bad reports, as well as the somewhat questionable business practices of the owner.

Thanks in advance.

It is a GNR and is up for renewal next year, not this year. All GNRs come up for renewal every 2 years, unless there are extenuating circumstances, such a closure, a move, a change of ownership, etc.

=R=
for the GNRs

That's unfortunate, given the ongoing precipitous slide of S&S and the owner's other business practices over the past few years. Not exactly the sort of place that we as a group should be touting as one worth seeking out and supporting, given what we know.