My family of 5 ate dinner at Spoodles on Thu 8/17. I believe we had Deb as our server. In my opinion, she ruined our dining experience there. My children are 10, 11 and 13, so all 5 of us are considered adults on the DDP. We told her we were going to order 4 full meals, not 5, and she gave us a hard time, telling us that the meal plan wasn't designed for that, blah, blah, blah..... I really think she was thinking that we were trying to somehow "cheat" the system, and save up child meal credits or something like that. (We had shared MANY times previously that week, and EVERY server we encountered was very supportive of our ordering 4 meals for the 5 of us.) I don't think it could have been the "tip" expectation since we ordered a $75 bottle of wine - our sharing had nothing to do with being "tight" with the $$. Anyway, I basically ignored her and ordered only 4 meals. But the kicker was that as I was ordering, she continued to make "recommendations" on what I should or should not order. "Don't order the lamb, it's not very good. You should order the shrimp, it's much better.... You aren't going to order the steak??? Everyone orders the steak, it's really good.... blah, blah, blah". I never *asked* for her recommendations, if I had asked for her advice, then that would have been fine. But it felt like she was steering me to order the more expensive items off the menu, instead of what my family likes. And to top it all off, I asked for more pita bread for the dips appetizer, and she very seriously told me that it would cost extra, and didn't I just want to use the bread from the "free bread basket"???? Well, no, I already ordered a $75 bottle of wine (Cakebread Chardonnay, BTW, it was good) and the $1.99 for the extra pita bread is not gonna break the bank.... She already had a "tab" running for the OOP items (my SIL joined us and we paid for her meal OOP - again, we were not in any way "cheating" on the DDP!), so what was the deal with our waitress anyway? I still don't know what her "problem" was, but her attitude for me pretty much ruined my experience at Spoodles. The food was very good, and plentiful, and even with ordering 4 DDP meals, we still had food left over. By the end of the meal, I think she had lightened up a bit, but it all started out badly, and that kind of set the tone for the rest of the meal.
The food itself was actually very good, but I would not return to Spoodles again, as I feel that the wait service is a very large part of the enjoyment of a meal, and I felt more "put-out" by the staff, rather than welcomed. I know everyone has their own experiences/perceptions, and most reviews for Spoodles are very good (which is part of the reason I chose it), so I am just offering up my own experience. YMMV.
