03/04/09

First time not great, but will give it one more shot.

by citylivin

From reading the past reviews and my own recent experience at Rachel's, it seems like they need to get their act together. I know several people who have had great food and service here, so I thought I'd give it a shot on a recent weeknight. Our party of four had to wait at the bar for a while until a table was ready, which was fine given that the bartender made good drinks and the owner was friendly and gave us updates as to when the table would be available. Once seated the service was a bit off, and one person's dish was wrong (right ingredients wrong preparation), and my food came out iced cold (even hot the stuffed pepper was tasteless). They were apologetic about the mishap and heated up my plate and didn't charge for it, but after waiting so long for a table I was really ready for good, hot food. The owner came over at the end and again apologized for the cold food and messed up order, but I was still let down after hearing good things about Rachel's. I'll give this place another chance, but I hope they work out the kinks before they lose more customers.

• Pros: Warm atmosphere, good prices
• Cons: Cold food, wrong order, disorganized service

02/28/09

Worst Treatment

by brklnboy

We came in friday after work to eat and drink the deliciousness that we've all had at separate times before. We came in before servers' shifts began. We were invited to take a table and simply order from the register and take the food to our table. Totally ok! at 5 the servers began their shifts. The bartender that night came to our table and said that she'd be taking care of us for the rest of our stay. great! but.... not really.

She came to the table a half hour later with drinks we didn't order. We said we didn't order them but we'd have them added to our tab and drink them anyway. She never returned to the table. I walked over to her and ordered 2 more drinks. She never brought them but did charge us for them. We asked for our check to simply cut our losses. We had been sitting for an hour and no server stopped by to check on the empty empty glasses. She never came to pick up the check. I brought it to her to discuss the overcharge and she turned her back to me. Then finally, she took off the two drinks in excess. The check was brought back and we were asked to pay because people were waiting for our table.

Having been to this place before and loving my service I was shocked by this treatment. I will not go back to Rachel's in Park Slope because of the degrading treatment by a bitter bartender who frankly lost out on a significantly higher bar tab.

• Pros: Excellent margaritas and food
• Cons: degrading service

01/24/09

Large Insect in my drink.

by danmintzer

The food was terrible. The service was very poor. Worst of all however, was the fact that there was a LARGE Insect in my horchata. A city insect. I had already drank half by the time I noticed. It was the most repulsive thing I've ever experienced in a restaurant. When i pointed it out to the waiter, he replied "oh sorry" and walked away, after leaving the check. Worst $20 ever spent. Gross.