"The other night I decided to treat my wife out to a nice dinner at Wildfire. It was a Friday night, we got a babysitter and were looking forward to good food and time alone. I went online, found this particular site and read the previous review on Wildfire, which was not very positive. However, I still took a chance, assuming that the service level experienced by that customer had been irregular on that particular day.
Well, we got there at our reserved time. The place was heaving, and we were shown to our table. From the beginning there seemed a slight smugness about our waiter, as we were expected to be dazzled by his good looks, Brazilian accent and the honour of being at Wildfire itself.
We received the customary first 'course' of salads and canapés, which seemed to linger for ages on our table well after we were done with it. To cut a long story short, the meats did not keep coming and coming (as they claim on their website), and we didn't see a hint of pork or fish (also claimed on their website). Furthermore, their meats were too salty - and my wife and I like salt in our food!
At one point in the evening there was a terribly long lull in service that I had to finally ask a nearby waiter for more food. Our waiter then materialised from somewhere and, giving a weak apology, asked what we wanted to eat. We asked for anything, so far as something came (I thought the meats kept coming and coming??). So a waiter came with...more salty sausages. After another lull in service and a request for service, this time we got beef, once again quite salty.
By that time we had spent 2 hours there. It was 10pm and some guests were beginning to leave though most of the restaurant was still packed. After our beef we decided to forego any more meats and go straight for the dessert. We had noticed a dessert cart making the rounds earlier loaded with cakes and pastries. When we contacted our waiter, he looked somewhat miffed that we should ask for dessert. He then proceeded to yell across the room to another waiter informing him that we had asked for dessert. That waiter too seemed irritated by the request, but then disappeared into the kitchen. 10 MINUTES LATER we still had no service. My wife and I presumed he was either fishing the dessert out of the dumpster, or he was begging his mates to give back some of the dessert they had wrapped up to take home. Another 5 minutes later he returned from the kitchen with a plate containing five selections that we had to pick from.
By the end of the night we were the last the leave. A 1.5 hour dinner had spread to nearly 2.5 hours due to poor service. The waiters, though smiling and seemingly accommodating, had that annoying smugness I would only expect from a more upscale establishment. The meats were too salty and, to top things off, the wines too expensive. However, they do make a wicked Brazilian cocktail.
" | John
New Zealand
Apr.19.2009
Overall rating 2/5 |