"It was my wife’s birthday last night and we needed a Walnut Creek place. When we arrived, we went, “Oh, this place.” We had eaten there before, on a very UNBUSY Sunday evening, and while the food was good, the service was abysmal, slow, and error prone. We decided to give another try. We entered a half-empty restaurant, were seated next to the entrance in a lousy location, the friendly waiter arrived quickly, talked about specials, and took orders. Gee, maybe this would be OK after all. WRONG! Turns out, the Icelandic Association was in town, and the owner, being from Iceland, decided to entertain a few hundred…ok, several dozen, it just felt like a few hundred, of his “friends” from Iceland. Quickly the place became chaotic. Tables started to move around, and considerably more people than should have been inside were crammed in. The placement was so tight, that while my back was to a main corridor, a long table was placed in such a way as to shrink this corridor down to just a few feet. As the people from Iceland began filling it, I was hit at least a dozen times in the head by arms, purses, and backs as they all greeted each other, standing in this aisle, blocking everyone else, who had to literally climb over me to get by. The owner and staff did nothing, and this went on for 15+ minutes. We were soon surrounded, and even after they all sat down, I continued to be bumped and hit by wait staff rushing through this tight space. It gets worse! After the food arrived, we never see our waiter again. OK, we saw him, trying to serve the bosses friends at all these other tables. A waitress (maybe the bosses daughter, she knew everyone from Iceland too was sitting at the bar, obviously off shift, but NEVER got up to help out in this obvious rush, choosing to rather bounce around the restaurant and chat. At one point, she sat down next to my sister to talk to the next table, sitting ON my sister’s purse and packages, never acknowledging we existed, and talked at a loud level for 20 to 30 minutes. I believe she was out waitress last time. Family, does as little as possible it seems. Meanwhile, we had now finished eating and empty (the food is good dirty plates sat for at least 20+ minutes while the waiters continued to serve (and comp the owner’s guests. I also watched the owner flit about, talking to a lot of tables, telling them how he would comp then items, ignoring us like we had the plague. After a long time, the waiter made an appearance, took our plates, and asked if we wanted desert. Sure. Menus arrived 10 minutes later. We thought, given the circumstances we would share an Icelandic Crape, and waited 20 more minutes. My sister flagged the waiter at least 4 times, no joy. By the time he arrived to take an order, we were no longer interested, and asked for the check. The waiting began again. After another 10 minutes or so, I finally stood up, flagged him down, and said “Now!” The bill arrived, and before he could leave, I handed him my credit card, and off he went. The waiting started again, and again, after another 10 or more minutes, I had to stand up and find him. By this time, I was livid with the service, being crammed in, the incredible noise of this over-filled restaurant, being constantly hit by people walking by, and seriously considered walking out without paying! He dropped the bill on our table, apologized, and disappeared. I signed the check, and we left, happy to be outside. On the way out, I saw the owner and walked up to him. I told him I just had one of the worst dinning experiences ever, and considered walking out without paying, and said why. He looked at me and said “Oh?” I tried to explain the issues, and he started to walk away. I stopped him and suggested if he wanted to do something like this again, he should really close the place to all others, as service is already bad, and this greatly effects non-guests. He simply said “Oh, that’s too bad” and walked away. No offer to come back again, no offer to comp anything (which he had been doing for his friend’s tables all night long, nothing. It just made me more annoyed with this place! We left to go find desert elsewhere, and that is when I discovered I did not have my credit card now. Seems in all this aggravation, I thought I put it away, when in fact, it had not been returned to me. We called the restaurant, and 12 rings later, someone answered and said they did not find any credit card. Then, 30 minutes later I got a call. Oh, we found it ’under the cash register. Really? We went back to pick it up, and it will be the last time we go there. One star for good food, but no more for two horrible experiences, and an owner that does not care. Stay away!"
