Darna Restaurant in Manhattan, New York
600 Columbus Ave corner of 89th Street
NY, NY
(212) 721-9123 600
darnanyc@verizon.net
http://www.darnanyc.com/
Moroccan kosher cuisine
So I went to visit my sister in New York in August of 2009 & she wanted to stay at a hotel in Manhattan for the weekend. Since she is religious, we had to order kosher food & make sure it was picked up before Shabbat started. I decided I would treat her to the dinner on Friday night.
A couple of weeks before I started looking for restaurants & I came across Darna restaurant. My sister called them to figure out what had to be done to make sure food was ordered & ready for when we arrived in that area to pick it up.
In true fashion we were all stressed rushing to get out of her house & ready for the drive to Manhattan. I had been looking at the Darma menu writing down what I wanted while she was running around getting ready. She had already called them saying we didn’t want their pre-set meal, we wanted to order a’la carte. They said that was fine, but when we called to actually give them the order, all of a sudden the story changed & I started to get upset. I should have known this was going to be a problem if the people over there say one thing one minute, then change their tune the next.
I will admit that we probably called a little too late, but the guy should have told my sister when was the absolute latest time we could call to order. They know their restaurant – we aren’t mind readers.
So my sister got on the phone & smoothed things out. If they weren’t going to take our order, we were going to have serious issues & no food to eat since we had already settled on this restaurant & it was too late to choose anything else. Plus, it had to be near the hotel.
We ordered the meal which came to a hefty $150 & change. I specifically asked the guy who was the owner how much the total was going to be & he shrugged me off. We confirmed it would be ready by the time we got there in an hour.
We got the car packed up & headed downtown.
I’m not religious so this didn’t matter to me, but my sister is very religious & as I said, we were running late. She was driving like a typical New Yorker which of course was scaring me to death.
We couldn’t go to the hotel yet, we had to pick up the food first, but when we got there, guess what… the food WASN’T ready.
While it was a nice place inside, they seemed clueless as to what was going on. When the food started to finally come out & we finally got the bill I was SHOCKED! The bill wasn’t $150, it was over $200. There was no way I was leaving there paying that amount, so I had to sit down & try to figure out what was going on.
Turns out they made a Cesar salad with fish instead of a regular Cesar. We didn’t ask for that, so they credited the difference. Then something else was wrong, I think they gave us a large of something even though I ordered small. I had to rush to open all the containers while my sister is having a near fit because we are so late.
Then after the guys corrected the bill, it was STILL too high. Finally I figured out what the problem was. Their site’s prices & the prices they were charging us were NOT the same. The site’s prices were lower.
Now they call the owner on the phone which is when I really started getting upset.
The guy was RUDE, arrogant & REFUSED to honor the prices that were on HIS site. I don’t care what mistake was made, it wasn’t my problem & he wasn’t even admitting to his mistake, he was making it seem like it was no big deal that the mistake was made, we had to eat it.
If you own a business & have a website, your prices better be up-to-date on your site. If they don’t, that is NOT the customer’s fault, it’s the owner’s.
The guy finally gave me like $10 off, but refused to give me back all the money he overcharged me. At one point he even said, “fine, then just leave the food there & go.” Can you believe that? After all we went through just to get the food & I spent a fortune, & this is how he treats us. And what if we walked out. He would have been left with over $200 worth of food, but I guess it’s more important for him to be nasty & get his way, than to honor his own prices & make the customer happy.
I know New Yorkers are not always known for being nice, but this is terrible how we were treated.
I had no choice but to pay the bill & grab the food & go.
Michelle
