Location: 4402 Watson Blvd., Johnson City, NY 13790
Phone: (607) 729 - 8944
Cuisine: Burgers/Sandwiches/Wraps/Wings
Attire: Casual
Price: $25 for two
Review:
I hate reviews like the one I'm about to embark upon here. I don't take pleasure in slamming a restaurant no matter how bad it is. There are real people behind the scenes who work hard to keep a place afloat, and I appreciate that.
But here it is.
The Blind Tiger Pub is a Johnson City restaurant/bar that features live music several nights a week. It has a pretty decent atmosphere that includes outdoor covered seating and both an outdoor and indoor bar. Tap selection is not bad for the area. I think I saw some taps with Blue Point and Smuttynose...not too shabby for a little neighborhood bar. The food menu consists of the usual "bar and grill" type stuff--burgers, wraps, sandwiches, wings, fried appetizers--and it's not bad. What is bad--beyond bad, really--is the service. The word "abysmal" comes to mind.
Megan and I arrived at 12:25 PM on a Tuesday for lunch. Since it was a nice day, we decided to sit outside. By 12:40 PM, we had menus. We placed our drink order and our food order soon thereafter. Megan really wanted a BLT (she had been there before and had the BLT) but it was no longer on their menu, despite what their website says. She went with the Chicken Caesar Wrap instead. I opted for the Pulled Pork Sandwich myself. Both were $8.75 and came with chips and a pickle. You can add fries or other sides for a couple additional dollars. A little pricey, I thought.
The food came out in a reasonable amount of time, around 12:55.
I was pleased with the pulled pork. It had nice smoky flavor and was far better than I expected it to be. No Dinosaur BBQ or anything but very solid nonetheless. Megan was pleased with her wrap as well. I tried a few bites and was equally impressed. Very tasty, nice Caesar dressing, flavorful grilled chicken. By 1:05 we had polished off both baskets of food and were pretty well satisfied. So, you're wondering, what's the problem? Had to wait a bit for menus at the beginning of the meal, but so what?
Well, that's when the real wait began. There is nothing that Megan and I hate more than having to wait an inordinate amount of time for our check. When we're done eating, we want to pay, head out, and get on with our day. No matter how good the food is at an establishment, if the service is awful, we are not going to be inclined to return.
1:15 came. No waitress to be found. Begin glancing at watch.
1:20. No luck, yet we see her servicing other adjacent tables. Starting to get pissed off.
1:25. Nah. Seething.
1:30. Fully pissed. Waitress finally shows her face. Yells from across the deck, three tables away--"Do you guys want your check?" Man, she can't even be bothered to walk over to our table after a full 35 minutes of not checking on us, not to mention the 15 minutes it took for us to get menus. Seriously, how rude.
Ummm, yeah, I wanted it 20 minutes ago.
1:40. A full ten minutes later, the check finally arrives. $23 it is. A little steep, methinks, for two sandwiches with no sides and iced tea to drink.
Not wanting to chance another 10 minute wait, we opted to pay cash.
Ahhh, look who decided to hover around the table when money's on the line! Pretty quick to accept our money yet not provide us any actual service, huh?
Enjoy your $2 tip. Don't spend it all in one place.
Grade: D
Wow - thanks! E
ReplyDeletePlace has not changed a bit. Greedy owners hire greedy employees, hmmmm.
ReplyDeleteThis is amazing. My husband and I stopped to check out this pub in August of 2010 and had almost the EXACT same experience. I don't mind waiting a bit if the location is slammed and they are perhaps short staffed but when we went we were the only people there for lunch. The waitress couldn't much be bothered with us because she was a little too preoccupied with the gentlemen at the bar. We are not hard people to please, but please don't make us hunt you down so we can pay our tab for a not so good meal.
ReplyDeleteThat sucks...but I've had nothing but great experiences at Blind Tiger. I've always gone for dinner, not lunch? Shouldn’t make a difference but just wanted to mention. The food is tasty, I haven't gotten something I didn't like. If you like Hummus, they make their own and it's delish. Their wings are great too, we usually get medium garlic and they use fresh garlic, not the jarred stuff. Sooo much better! Their pizza is really good too. I would give it another try sometime...
ReplyDeleteHad a bad experience here too. Took so long to get our drink order (~20 mins, not particularly busy) we decided not to even order food and go somewhere else.
ReplyDeleteBlind Tiger's service STILL sucks.
ReplyDeleteWow- two years later and the service hasn't changed. It took forEVER to get our check. Then, the manager and her sister (a waitress) were in the parking lot when we left, swearing at the top of their lungs and trying to fight some girl that was trying to leave. It was absurd. I'm amazed they kept their jobs after that frightening ordeal. Does the owner not know things like that are going on in his restaurant?
ReplyDelete