My husband and I dined at the White Birch with another couple on October 4. We were staying in Long Lake and had spent the day up at Ausable Chasm. We stopped here because it looked nice and it was open (it was only 4:00 in the afternoon).
The decor and atmosphere was nice and we were reassured. Our young waiter was extremely inept, although very sweet and kind of clueless that he was so bad at his job. We were in a good mood and just decided to enjoy the evening and tolerate his mistakes (there were many).
However, when the food came out (after a very long wait), my order was not correct. He looked confused and went away. After 10 minutes, he returned and said he had written the order down incorrectly, and 'what did I want to do about it'. I said I wanted what I had ordered.By this time, the rest of the table was a third of the way through their food. He took the plate back to the kitchen.
Almost 20 minutes passed before my food came out. Now to clarify, I had ordered the salmon florentine, and he had brought me out plain grilled salmon. All the cook had to do was to add the spinach and cheese. Additionally, three other tables had their food brought out before my dinner came out.
By this time, my table had finished eating and was sitting patiently. I asked for a price adjustment. The waiter returned and said the cook told him that was not possible. We asked to speak to the manager. Up to this point, all had been polite if a little awkward.
The manager, a large man, came to our table and began bellowing at us before we even said a word. He proceeded to yell at us in an extremely loud voice and did not let us get a word in edgewise. When I managed to say that all we wanted was a small price adjustment, he said he would buy us a cup of coffee. He also threatened my husband and behaved in a generally unbalanced manner.
We decided to just pay the bill and leave, although we paid with cash because we did not want to turn our credit cards over to that man. While the food was basically OK, the service was just dreadful, and the behavior of the manager towards customers was incredibly rude and belligerent. I have never in my life experienced anything like this. We were still shaking our heads and wondering if it really happened several days later. I would absolutely avoid this place.
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