Pao

To the Manager of Pau Restaurant, Springfield, Il: (Sent 10/30/17) I am writing this to you personally instead of posting a review online. Perhaps you were not made aware of what we experienced in your restaurant. I believe if you had, you would have made an effort to make things right. My husband & I & two guests dined in your restaurant on Saturday, October 28. Our reservation was for 5pm. We were treating my Aunt & Uncle, who drove up from O’Fallon, IL to spend the evening with us. The gentlemen ordered the Pau Steak, my Aunt ordered the Salmon & requested it poached due to dietary restrictions. She requested asparagus in place of the basmati rice pilaf. I ordered the scallops & shared the crab cake appetizer with her. The crab cakes were one of the best we’ve ever had & being from Newfoundland, both my Aunt & I were very pleased, I must say. & my scallops were cooked to perfection! Unfortunately, that is the only thing I can share with you that was positive about our dining experience. Our waitress came to the table without introducing herself so I have no idea who she was but she was kind & polite. When asked if there was a sommelier who could help us with the wine list she told us she didn’t know what that was. After I explained it to her, she told us she was “new” (which was obvious as she reached across our table in front of my Uncle to pour my Aunt’s water) & that she would ask the bartender what he would recommend. We thanked her but declined. We ordered the Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio. She brought our wine (again pouring my Aunt’s wine from across the table) & set the bottle on the table. I assumed most restaurants knew that cold wines & champagnes are served with a personal wine cooler. We had to ask for ours. As we picked up our salad forks to begin our dinner course, both my Uncle’s & husband’s steaks were too tough to eat. They were ordered medium-rare. My Uncle did not wish to make a fuss but my husband sent his back & requested a new one. It was somewhat better than the first but still not tender. He ate what he could not wishing to spoil any more of our visit. Neither my husband nor my Uncle finished their steak. My Aunt’s poached salmon was raw on the inside & was sent back for further poaching. I would think that a well trained chef would check this before plating. The asparagus was perfect but the cauliflower was overdone & mushy. After our first plates were served, our waitress came back to check on us once (when we returned the salmon & steak), once to fill our waters & to see if everything was still ok, once to take our plates, once to bring dessert which we had to request a dessert menu, & once to bring our check. This would be considered the bare minimum of service required for any establishment. She was very sweet & kind but considerably lacking in fine dining service etiquette. We ordered coconut cream pie for dessert & it was wonderful. The most disappointing part of our evening was…with all of the issues we had during our evening, especially having to send back not one but two meals (three should have been sent back), I would have expected a manager to come to our table to make contact with us & discuss the problems we had experienced. I would also have expected our dinners to be of a higher quality as reflected by the prices than what we experienced. The menu prices were acceptable for a high quality restaurant…we expected the food & service quality to reflect those prices. They did not. I would appreciate some form of contact from you. Message: (Sent 11/1/17) Part 2 of earlier email sent on 10/30/17...
I left this off of my previous email. We were overcharged for our meal as well. Salmon is listed on the menu as $16, we were charged $19, scallops are listed as $25, we were charged $29, Pau Steak was listed as $16, we were charged $34 for two. That's a total overcharge of $9.00. My receipt info is: CHK#5, TBL#43, Katherine, #721, 10/28/2017 @ 5:19:27pm. I am still waiting to hear back from the manager on my previous email.

To the Manager of Pau Restaurant, Springfield, Il: (Sent 10/30/17) I am writing this to you personally instead of posting a review online. Perhaps you were not made aware of what we experienced in your restaurant. I believe if you had, you would have made an effort to make things right. My husband & I & two guests dined in your restaurant on Saturday, October 28. Our reservation was for 5pm. We were treating my Aunt & Uncle, who drove up from O’Fallon, IL to spend the evening with us. The gentlemen ordered the Pau Steak, my Aunt ordered the Salmon & requested it poached due to dietary restrictions. She requested asparagus in place of the basmati rice pilaf. I ordered the scallops & shared the crab cake appetizer with her. The crab cakes were one of the best we’ve ever had & being from Newfoundland, both my Aunt & I were very pleased, I must say. & my scallops were cooked to perfection! Unfortunately, that is the only thing I can share with you that was positive about our dining experience. Our waitress came to the table without introducing herself so I have no idea who she was but she was kind & polite. When asked if there was a sommelier who could help us with the wine list she told us she didn’t know what that was. After I explained it to her, she told us she was “new” (which was obvious as she reached across our table in front of my Uncle to pour my Aunt’s water) & that she would ask the bartender what he would recommend. We thanked her but declined. We ordered the Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio. She brought our wine (again pouring my Aunt’s wine from across the table) & set the bottle on the table. I assumed most restaurants knew that cold wines & champagnes are served with a personal wine cooler. We had to ask for ours. As we picked up our salad forks to begin our dinner course, both my Uncle’s & husband’s steaks were too tough to eat. They were ordered medium-rare. My Uncle did not wish to make a fuss but my husband sent his back & requested a new one. It was somewhat better than the first but still not tender. He ate what he could not wishing to spoil any more of our visit. Neither my husband nor my Uncle finished their steak. My Aunt’s poached salmon was raw on the inside & was sent back for further poaching. I would think that a well trained chef would check this before plating. The asparagus was perfect but the cauliflower was overdone & mushy. After our first plates were served, our waitress came back to check on us once (when we returned the salmon & steak), once to fill our waters & to see if everything was still ok, once to take our plates, once to bring dessert which we had to request a dessert menu, & once to bring our check. This would be considered the bare minimum of service required for any establishment. She was very sweet & kind but considerably lacking in fine dining service etiquette. We ordered coconut cream pie for dessert & it was wonderful. The most disappointing part of our evening was…with all of the issues we had during our evening, especially having to send back not one but two meals (three should have been sent back), I would have expected a manager to come to our table to make contact with us & discuss the problems we had experienced. I would also have expected our dinners to be of a higher quality as reflected by the prices than what we experienced. The menu prices were acceptable for a high quality restaurant…we expected the food & service quality to reflect those prices. They did not. I would appreciate some form of contact from you. Message: (Sent 11/1/17) Part 2 of earlier email sent on 10/30/17...
I left this off of my previous email. We were overcharged for our meal as well. Salmon is listed on the menu as $16, we were charged $19, scallops are listed as $25, we were charged $29, Pau Steak was listed as $16, we were charged $34 for two. That's a total overcharge of $9.00. My receipt info is: CHK#5, TBL#43, Katherine, #721, 10/28/2017 @ 5:19:27pm. I am still waiting to hear back from the manager on my previous email.

To the Manager of Pau Restaurant, Springfield, Il: (Sent 10/30/17) I am writing this to you personally instead of posting a review online. Perhaps you were not made aware of what we experienced in your restaurant. I believe if you had, you would have made an effort to make things right. My husband & I & two guests dined in your restaurant on Saturday, October 28. Our reservation was for 5pm. We were treating my Aunt & Uncle, who drove up from O’Fallon, IL to spend the evening with us. The gentlemen ordered the Pau Steak, my Aunt ordered the Salmon & requested it poached due to dietary restrictions. She requested asparagus in place of the basmati rice pilaf. I ordered the scallops & shared the crab cake appetizer with her. The crab cakes were one of the best we’ve ever had & being from Newfoundland, both my Aunt & I were very pleased, I must say. & my scallops were cooked to perfection! Unfortunately, that is the only thing I can share with you that was positive about our dining experience. Our waitress came to the table without introducing herself so I have no idea who she was but she was kind & polite. When asked if there was a sommelier who could help us with the wine list she told us she didn’t know what that was. After I explained it to her, she told us she was “new” (which was obvious as she reached across our table in front of my Uncle to pour my Aunt’s water) & that she would ask the bartender what he would recommend. We thanked her but declined. We ordered the Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio. She brought our wine (again pouring my Aunt’s wine from across the table) & set the bottle on the table. I assumed most restaurants knew that cold wines & champagnes are served with a personal wine cooler. We had to ask for ours. As we picked up our salad forks to begin our dinner course, both my Uncle’s & husband’s steaks were too tough to eat. They were ordered medium-rare. My Uncle did not wish to make a fuss but my husband sent his back & requested a new one. It was somewhat better than the first but still not tender. He ate what he could not wishing to spoil any more of our visit. Neither my husband nor my Uncle finished their steak. My Aunt’s poached salmon was raw on the inside & was sent back for further poaching. I would think that a well trained chef would check this before plating. The asparagus was perfect but the cauliflower was overdone & mushy. After our first plates were served, our waitress came back to check on us once (when we returned the salmon & steak), once to fill our waters & to see if everything was still ok, once to take our plates, once to bring dessert which we had to request a dessert menu, & once to bring our check. This would be considered the bare minimum of service required for any establishment. She was very sweet & kind but considerably lacking in fine dining service etiquette. We ordered coconut cream pie for dessert & it was wonderful. The most disappointing part of our evening was…with all of the issues we had during our evening, especially having to send back not one but two meals (three should have been sent back), I would have expected a manager to come to our table to make contact with us & discuss the problems we had experienced. I would also have expected our dinners to be of a higher quality as reflected by the prices than what we experienced. The menu prices were acceptable for a high quality restaurant…we expected the food & service quality to reflect those prices. They did not. I would appreciate some form of contact from you. Message: (Sent 11/1/17) Part 2 of earlier email sent on 10/30/17...
I left this off of my previous email. We were overcharged for our meal as well. Salmon is listed on the menu as $16, we were charged $19, scallops are listed as $25, we were charged $29, Pau Steak was listed as $16, we were charged $34 for two. That's a total overcharge of $9.00. My receipt info is: CHK#5, TBL#43, Katherine, #721, 10/28/2017 @ 5:19:27pm. I am still waiting to hear back from the manager on my previous email.