The Nice Guy - West Hollywood

The restaurant had excellent music, atmosphere, and food on a Tuesday night, but I must say that the bouncer needs to be replaced. I work in a field where customer service is of the utmost importance, and as they are the first person you encounter, being aloof and unfriendly made my friend and I feel unwelcome. You have nailed the food and atmosphere, now it's time to update your bouncers.

On the evening of Wednesday, August 16, 2023, my nephew and I decided to check out this restaurant to review the menu and consider making reservations for a future visit. As we approached the entrance, a man who appeared to be a host or manager looked us up and down and abruptly informed us that the restaurant only accepts reservations. The way he treated us made me question if we were being discriminated against based on our race, as we hadn't even spoken a word. This experience made it clear that this is not a restaurant where I would want to dine, as if such unprofessional behavior was displayed at the front door, I can only imagine what the management inside must be like. This unfortunately aligns with other negative reviews highlighting rude and poor-quality management.

I had made a reservation for a party of 5 at this restaurant one month in advance. When I called to make the reservation, I received excellent customer service and was told they would try to secure a booth for my group. However, on the day of the reservation, I received a confirmation stating that the reservation was for only 4 people. When I called to rectify the error, I was informed that I could be seated in the kitchen, away from the main dining area. Ultimately, I decided to cancel the reservation. My party and I were visiting from out of town, so this mix-up was very disappointing. I would suggest making reservations online for a better paper trail.

Whenever we thought we found a top brunch, the nice guy changed that thinking. Bringing along a top menu plus the typical great american service, this institution has raised the standards again. An understanding manager plus top service.

We had a relatively nice meal here until we were leaving. When we received the bill, they added an ‘entertainment fee’ which we questioned our waitress on. She was vague said she wasn’t really sure but it’s some sort of service charge therefore when leaving a tip we left slightly less as we assumed this ‘service’ charge was towards the tip too. Once we left and had just literally stepped out of the premises, we were ambushed by the manager/ a staff member who questioned our ‘low’ tip. We explained that we were told the random entertainment fee was a service charge to which he himself then said ‘it’s a confusing charge and is actually to do with health and safety does not go to the staff’, but once again he was also very vague about this random fee. He then continued to say our tip was low and we are ‘in America’ and they rely on tips. He was passive aggressive, rude unprofessional as he stood there holding our bill as if waiting for us to get more dollars out to hand over. We had just paid a $300 bill with an unjustifiable ‘entertainment fee’ to then be confronted outside about our tip. He said he could remove the entertainment fee for a higher tip I said well if it is not mandatory then it should not be on there! No other restaurant charges this and it is suspicious. He then continued on about the ‘ low tip ‘ in-front of other customers outside too who all agreed afterwards how rude this was. We were all left in shock completely uncomfortable at his approach. At the end of the day a tip amount is discretionary and to ambush a customer over a lower tip than expected when they have the cheek to demand a fake charge is outrageous. It really ruined the whole evening.