In all the time I’ve been on this foodie adventure, never have I really experienced bad service. Slow service, yes, but just flat out bad service is a rare occurrence. Unfortunately my one and only night in Charlotte ended up being one of those rare occurrences. And to add insult to injury my street cred as a self-proclaimed foodie was on the line with a new group of co-workers to take on an adventure with me. Little did I know the awful ride we would end up on.
The food in and of itself was pretty decent. We started out with appetizers that included fried calamari and chips with guac and cheese. One can’t really go wrong with the chips and the calamari was flavorful and tender. For my entrée I order salmon with grilled veggies. The salmon was good. Nothing outstanding but it did provide me a nice healthy option as I try to get back on the healthy track while I travel.
Unfortunately my grilled veggies did not come out with my dinner. In fact it did not come out until I was about ½ way done with my salmon. Another person at our table ordered sweet potato fries that was cold and when it was sent back it was overdone and pretty much inedible. Since the veggies and fries didn’t come out as planned, our server offered to comp us a couple of desserts to say sorry. We ordered those desserts and waited…and waited…and waited until it was almost not worth waiting any longer. It was only then the desserts, and the highlight of the night, finally arrived.
The ginormous freshly baked cookie with a scoop of ice cream on top was split between myself and two others at the table and it was the best damn thing. Almost made everything worth it. And I say almost because once the bill came the “free” desserts weren’t free at all. After all that! A talk with the manager straightened everything out, but the damage was already done.
Our server was very slow, inattentive and just plain bad. I’ve talked about giving out monikers for the first time and I must say Harpers earned the worst restaurant ever and one that I would not recommend to anyone at all.