A Restaurant Comedy of Errors

I really, really like finding and trying out new restaurants.  I'd much rather play Restaurant Go than Pokemon Go.  If there were points for that, I'd be all over that game.  So when I read about Cooper's Hawk Winery in Annapolis, I was very, very happy.  Annapolis is easy peasy to get to - also, it's one of my favorite places in Maryland - and the review mentioned Banofee Pie, which you usually don't find outside of the UK.  Add to it, it was a Friday night and there would be a band playing and CHW had an outdoor patio from which to listen to it.  All the trappings of a great evening...Right?  Wrong.

Before I get into the bads, I'd like to say the food was very, very good.  I'm super sad there were so many bads, because the food was outstanding - which one could argue is the most important part of any restaurant. 

The evening started out a bit rough with an hour wait for a table - hour and a half if we wanted to wait for a seat on that lovely patio overlooking the concert.  We opted for inside and were able to go shopping while we waited.  So far so good.  The beginnings of the bad was the wait for a waitress to actually take our order.  After finally placing our appetizer order we were left waiting for another 10-15 minutes to place our main order.  Not fun, but not terrible.  Here's where it gets weird.

My food finally came after a bit of a wait, but not my friend's.  After about 5 minutes of still no food for her, we finally found our waitress who's response to "she doesn't have her food yet" was "Oh you don't?"  Could she not see the table was empty in front of her?  After a few more minutes, we were told her pasta was over cooked and was being remade, and would be out in a few more minutes.  Luckily my friend is  a lot better at asking for managers than I am so she called him over and had a chat.  

The Piece de Resistance was dessert.  Remember that Banoffee Pie I was so excited about? Yep, they were out of it.  I'd like the record to reflect, it was the NUMBER ONE reason I wanted to try the darn restaurant in the first place.  After disregarding dessert, we finally got the check, where we learned the manager came through and comped everything but the appetizer.

All in all, it could have been much worse.  But it was a very long evening.  The food, like I said was delicious, and I'd like to go back to try more of the items on the menu - most especially the pie! - but maybe not for a few months.  I think I'll let them get their service kinks out first before I waste yet another gorgeous evening.