Freshies

Freshies is probably one of the worst restaurant experiences I've had in a long time.

While staying in South Lake Tahoe this past weekend for Mike's race, we ventured into unfamiliar territory when we decided on Freshies for dinner Friday night. Here's a list of the things that went wrong with our dining experience:

1. A poorly marked sign informed patrons to write down their own names on the list at the hostess podium - which no one saw, and therefore found themselves standing in front of the podium forever while the staff merely ignored their presence waiting for them to find the sign with the instructions. Sarah took it upon herself to inform various patrons about the restaurant policies, because clearly no one who works there was interested.

2. Sarah was scolded for sitting on the staircase, due to a lack of seating available for waiting customers. No, not kindly informed that her choice of seating was not preferable to the staff, actually scolded. Mike was then ridiculed for getting in the way of this same angry staffer, as he moved an empty chair towards our corner of the courtyard waiting area. Last I checked, you don't want to make your patrons hate you before they have even committed to eating at your restaurant...

3. When asked how long the wait would be for a table, the staff answered with the same line each and every time - "the diners at your table are about halfway through their meal".

4. As a result of the inconclusive answer to number 3, we were left waiting for a table for 1 hour! We were starving and very tired.

5. After finally being escorted to a table (1 hour after arrival) we found that the diners who had been given a table shortly after our arrival, were only now receiving their food. The wait was far from over.

6. When the waitress began to recite the Specials Menu, Mike informed her that we had actually already decided what we wanted to order. She got angry and I'm sure she spit in our food.

7. My meal stank. Mike and Sarah had good meals, so I'll give them that, and the fries and house salad were quite tasty, but my meal - no good.

So, basically after 2.5 hours we walked away angry, cold and (for me) unsatisfied.

Aside from Freshies, the weekend in Tahoe was a blast. Here are some photos: