why is service at Le Virtu so bad?

[myra]

Four of us had dinner there last night, and the service is oddly offhand and inconsiderate, especially considering the food prices. The food is good and interesting and a bit subtle, and the servers are a bit hopeless, both amateur and a little indifferent. Stuff like two servers asking what kind of water we wanted and then not bringing it, and when we asked for water, saying, More water? to our empty glasses. Giving the take home containers to the wrong people. Taking forever to bring wine, when we can see the server standing and chatting. If they could get the service together, it would be a very nice restaurant, loudness notwithstanding (I think it's the tiled floors, but we had to shout to converse.) I wish them luck getting the service together, really a pleasant place with a very good chef. I guess it would help if we complained, instead of leaving the standard 20%, but then to complain is to detract further from our own pleasure in going out.

[largepep]

I coundn't agree more. I went twice and on both occassions the service was horrendous, just trainwreck bad- young, rude, extremely SLOW, inexperienced servers, forgetting and mixing up orders, forgetting our wine and dessert, not clearing dirty dishes, having to ask 3 times for bread.

[givemecarbs]

I've never been there but I really like what you said about complaining detracting from your pleasure. It is so true. Complaining generally doesn't work for me. Hope it is okay that I commented here but that really struck a chord with me.

[Philly Ray]

I could not agree more. We were there a while ago and I thought the service was definitely poor.

First of all, our server looked like a slob. Then, he kept eyeballing our plates (in a way that made me feel rushed) to see when we were finished so he could whisk them away. And when clearing the plates, he dripped sauce on two of us and did not even notice. When I pointed it out, he did remove that dish from our check, but still.

Another thing that was a turn-off was taking used silverware off of our plates from one course and resetting the table with it for the next course. Are they trying to conserve water? It is not that hard to reset the table with fresh utensils for each course, especially in a place that is striving to be "upscale."

After having dined at Paradiso so many times before (where the service is much more polished and the food is every bit as good) I have to say that we will not be returning to Le Virtu any time soon.

[DonZ]

I must agree. The food was very good but, the service was not.