Restaurant review – Horrible experience at Sego restaurant in Ketchum, Idaho!

I normally don’t write reviews like this. However my meal last night (12/30/2009) at Sego restaurant in Ketchum, Idaho (or lack of meal, as the case may be), was by far the worst dining experience I have ever had.

Abstract: After waiting more than two and half hours for a dinner that never arrived, we were forced to follow the lead of others and walk away. This restaurant, and it’s management clearly lacks even the most basics of customer service, not to mention respect for patrons. Sego restaurant in Ketchum, Idaho is NOT a place I‘d recommend to anyone.

So What Happened Last Night?

Our party of 5 arrived for our 7:30pm reservation and the place was packed. For a small restaurant like Sego, it was great to see. We had to wait 15 minutes for our table but that was no big deal. Since they aren’t able to serve wine yet, we brought our own and they opened it for us (without corkage). So far so good.

Then we were seated at a table a bit too small for our group (they had added an extra chair on the booth), but… oh, well. It was the holidays and the place was busy. Our waiter introduced the menu and although they were out of a few things, we said, again, oh well! It happens! No problems yet! He got us started with water, bread, etc.

About 15 minutes after being seated, we ordered some appetizers for the table and then our meals. Since I eat a fairly restrictive diet, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that the chef could come up with a meal to suit; that’s a plus in a community this size, and I was looking forward to see what he would make.

An hour later, our appetizers arrived. Does it really take 45 minutes to make topped flat bread and pork confit? I don’t believe so! The rest of the table began to eat but I can’t comment on the quality of the food as I didn’t order a starter suitable for my chosen diet.

Now the wait began in earnest. The wait staff stopped serving bread to our table (most likely because they were running out) and in reality, we should have never needed more bread. However, time kept ticking away and there was no sign of our food coming out, and we were hungry.

To compound the wait, and to make matters worse, there was no communication from our waiter who went from being always-around to hard-to-find! There was no word from management either, nothing to let us know that there was some sort of delay. We just sat and sat and sat.

It wasn’t just our table either. Every one around us was waiting for food, and each of these tables had been seated within 30 minutes of us. All except for one table, that is. That table had a party of 6 to 8, and were seated well after our appetizers had been served. In face, we had been sitting for over an hour at that point. The difference between our table and theirs was that they had a few “celebrities” sitting at it.

Now I only recognized one person, Dennis Miller, but I was told there were other well-known people as well. Sun Valley is full of celebrities around the holidays (and a lot of other times), and it’s great to see them out. Of course, whenever they’re out, they get extra attention. That’s fine. It’s the way it works, This is nothing new and not unexpected.

At 2 hours 15 minutes after ordering, and without ANY communication from restaurant personnel for the last hour, our server finally appeared to inform us our meals were being plated and it would be just minute. This was welcome news because at this point, we’d had enough of waiting. There really is NO possible reason in my mind why anyone should have to wait two and a quarter hours for a meal, not to mentioned receiving absolutely zero communication about the wait along the way.

Moreover, we could not see anyone assisting the other tables either. There was simply no one in sight. It’s like everyone took an hour plus break right in the middle of serving dinner!

However, time continued to pass….

It didn’t pass so slowly for the table seated an hour after us, however. The table with the “celebrities” had already been served two courses while the rest of us in the immediate vicinity had barely gotten any food. Meanwhile, the restaurant manager /owner (or part owner) Kevin Stuessi, the hostess, and nearly all the serving staff were lavishing attention on the one table. In effect, Sego had only one table that night was receiving their meals while just about every other party there continued to wait.

People were getting impatient. It’s one thing to give extra attention to special visitors, but it is another to fundamentally neglect every other customer in doing so. It was very clear that the restaurant staff’s only concern was for one table. That night, they didn’t seem to care if there were any other patrons in Sego.

We continued to wait. After having been seated for nearly two and a half hours (more than an hour and a half since the arrival of our appetizers), a large party of about ten had clearly had enough with the wait and began to get up and leave. We decided to follow suit and leave as well.

As we were departing, our server was kind enough to bring a cork so that we could stopper the open wine bottle. Kevin Stuessi, however, insisted that we retake our seats saying that the meal was almost ready, grabbed an arm, and was verbally insulting and argumentative. Such actions are absolutely uncalled for, and there was no evidence our food was nearly done. We’d been told it was being plated more than 20 minutes before. If a meal has been sitting out for 20 minutes waiting for the other dishes to be ready, how enticing is that, even if it were have eventually come out at all?

Although Mr. Stuessi offered to compensate us for the meal (or a future one), he was arrogant, argumentative and insincere, and ultimately, it was too late for that. In situations where some type of problem exists, it is my experience (and justified expectation) that someone will communicate with the customer along the way if there any problems or concerns. Only then can issues be resolved appropriately. However, rather than be proactive in any way, the management of Sego chose the alternate path of ignoring the majority of their customers, blatantly displaying a lack of concern for the many patrons there that night, and verbally arguing with us. A two and half hour wait time is simply unacceptable, not to mention the lack of communication along the way. The restaurant business is a service industry and Sego obviously didn’t care about service on this particular evening.

In general, I like to support new restaurants in Ketchum. I had been looking forward to this meal. Sadly, we had to walk away after more than two and half hours of waiting after ordering without ever getting to eat a meal. The one thing that is clear to me from that night is the absolute lack of respect, service, or care for customers displayed by Sego’s management. Management’s decision to serve food to only one table and hence, disregard every other customer, was unforgivable. I may not be a full-time resident like my family, but all of us were disgusted with the service and treatment we received. No one comes to Sun Valley (or any restaurant for that matter) to be treated so poorly.

So fair warning I would avoid going, but should you choose to go to Sego restaurant in Ketchum, Idaho you may want to plan for a long night. And bring extra wine. Our experience was hands-down the worst dining experience of my life. I have never been treated so disrespectfully by a restaurant, and this was the first time I’ve ever left mid-meal. I feel badly for the servers, who surely lost credibility as well as tips along the way as a result of managements actions.

Sego’s website appears to still be under construction. So here are Sego’s details.

Sego Restaurant and Bar
131 Washington Blvd.

Ketchum, ID, 83340

208.928.7878

** this is a revision of the original post, modified to reduce length and wording.

Posted in Randomness, Tumblelog on December 31st, 2009 Taged with Restaurant, sego

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