3 Filtered Reviews of Avelo
The reviews below were either questionable or violated our site terms. They therefore are not factored into this business's overall star rating.
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Cheap and staff do not care about your well-being
- Deprived of food because they were stingy and calculative of inventory for their mini croissant.
- Establishment was freezing cold by the window and we were seated there to attract customers.
- staff didn’t ask how to make the experience better as we were cold and unhappy
- some dishes were so not worth it and dry
we had to share dessert ?!?!
- tip was included in the final price with no choice for unhappy customers to decide on tipping.
Terrible
Updated from previous review on 2024-12-02
Pros: Some presentation, Some staff were okay , Some dishes were good enough
Cons: Cheapness and portions , Service , Temperature
rogeryang
This seems to have started with an unfortunate misunderstanding of the concept of a tasting menu, and ballooned into some kind of vendetta, with multiple insulting comments from both people on our Instagram account, and dramatically negative reviews on Google, TripAdvisor, Happycow, OpenTable, and probably others.
Tasting menus involve multiple courses, so the portions are necessarily small. The idea is to "taste" a variety of dishes. It's expensive because it involves many hours of preparation, cooking, serving, etc. Yes, we served a dish that comes with a miniature croissant. No, we don't always have extra portions of dishes because otherwise we would have to throw food out every night. The croissants are hand made, baked just before service. Some guests have commented that they were the "best croissant" they've ever had, vegan or not.
Since there were so many libelous claims from 2 people, that are inevitably going to be altered or deleted, here's a list of them that we could find, along with rebuttals.
Claim: Reviewer got frostbite at room temperature
Fact: This is just not possible. The outside temperature wasn't even below freezing, and certainly not inside. We also have an extra space heater at that table.
Claim: Reviewer's toes were so cold that they stuck together
Fact: What? Best to see a doctor about that.
Claim: We only served a single dessert for two people to share from an "a la carte menu"
Fact: We always serve two different desserts, and place one in front of each guest. Nobody was forced to share anything. An "a la carte" menu is actually the opposite of a tasting menu, which we do not offer.
Claim: Reviewers asked to be moved to another table.
Fact: Of course, we would have moved them if they had asked, but they did not.
Claim: Reviewers were never asked how they liked the food.
Fact: We always ask guests how they like the food, probably too often.
Claim: Reviewer claims that we sat them at the table by the window because they're "young, hot, and rich" and assumed that their mere presence would attract more customers.
Fact: 99% of our guests make reservations ahead of time. We're on a quiet street with little foot traffic. We don't care if guests are young, hot, and/or rich, and nobody else does either.
Claim: We added an automatic tip.
Fact: When reservations are booked, there is specific wording about our 18% service charge, which is in lieu of a tip. All guests agree to this when booking. It's also in the menu and website.
BuenaClienta
Look, we know from how you replied from your personal Instagram account (then deleted your comments afterward) that you are just upset and lack customer service skills. You need to look into customer service skills. You had bad service and gave customers a bad experience; this is the outcome. Suck it up! Not every person that walks in is going to enjoy the experience, and this is where you decide if you want to be a big baby or man up and take accountability as an owner and do better.
Extremely poor service
It saddens me to have to rate a vegan restaurant this low but our experience was just awful. I am copy-pasting my Google review to HappyCow to improve exposure.
When booking online there was no option to mention allergies. Because of this, we figured it wouldn’t be a big deal so we could just tell them when we got there for dinner. We asked which dishes had nuts and they let us know that it was too late to modify any dishes, we said that was fine and we could swap dishes with the person with nut allergies.
But, once they realized that one person would be unable to eat the 8 courses, they refused to serve us. They would not allow us to swap dishes with each other at all— each person had to eat every single 8 course dish.
They said the 5 course could be modified instead, but then we would have to all do the 5 course (when the only reason we came for the 8:00 seating was because it was the only option for an 8 course). We repeated that we’ll just do the 8 course and swap the ones with nuts with the person with the allergy so we’d all be full and satisfied. But now they didn’t want to SERVE us doing the 8 course at all: ALL people at the table had to eat the 5 course meal, or nothing. They didn’t want one person to eat several dishes of the same course because that would “ruin the experience”.
We were still willing to pay full price for the full, unmodified 8 course meal (8 courses for 4 people wine tasting). We were completely understanding when they said they couldn’t modify the meals, but now that they knew 1 person wouldn’t eat ALL 8, they would no longer let us any/all of us get the 8 course. They were fine with 2 people sharing the wine tasting too, so this was odd.
We understand why they didn’t want some of us having the 5 course while others had the 8 course, but none of us have ever been to a restaurant that refused to serve us exactly what we originally came and made our reservation for (the 8 course meal). We had to get up and leave because we had 2 waiters explain to us that the chef no longer wanted to give us the 8 course, just the 5 course.
Finally, they responded to my review claiming we were rude and moved the server to tears. We were not rude, and they also respond to negative reviews on Google by calling them fake in an effort to get Google to remove them. As you can see, my profile is real and overwhelmingly positive. I truly wish our experience at Avelo was positive, I would’ve loved for them to say this was just a misunderstanding.
Hannahtruong15
Points +16
TERRIBLE! BAD SERVICE. MEDIOCRE FOOD. - Edit
Service is TERRIBLE! AVOID THIS PLACE! SAVE YOUR MONEY! Waitress lies about how they dont serve extra bread (which is 1 toddler-sized croissant); when the restaurant does a la carte? Bullshit, they dont have extra 0.1cent bread? LOL. You call this fine dining? Did the 5 course tasting menu with my co-worker. On November 30, 5:15pm. We were absolutely appalled when we were told only 1 child-sized croissant for the tasting menu which was approximately a bit over $100$. I paid $140 for 5 course tasting menu and 1 cocktail. For no more than 1 child-sized croissant? Lmao. We were also seated next to the window, where it was cold in almost December weather.. i can see through this restaurant’s bullshit. We are hot, young, and rich. No one was at the restaurant at 5:15pm and they seat us next to the window to attract other customers ? LOL. They also made us pay FULL price each, for a SHARED dessert . My co-worker is Covid-Concerned, as we are professionals in Medicine. We did not share the dessert. We just paid full price for them anyways. Funny to call yourself “fine dining” with this terrible service? This is equivalent to Mcdonalds. Where the waitress are dressed in casual clothing, and never once asked us if our food was okay! ( our food was also mediocre).
Read moreMy co-worker flew in from across the country on her day off from work. Just to try this restaurant. And we were so absolutely disappointed! What a waste of time and money. And we left disgusted with the service!
I have travelled across the world for the best restaurants. No restaurant has ever denied extra bread. On a pate item? Lol, we just left our plates full and left. No waitress ever asked us if we were okay or satisfied. This is a disgrace to call this restaurant a “fine dining” restaurant. This is below average. Better off going to Mcdonalds. AVOID THIS DISGRACE OF “FINE DINING this restaurant will leave you hungry, angry, and disappointed! I dont care about the price, i just care about service. As my time is valuable. I wouldve been happier ordering from Taco Bell!
We decided to go to C-Suite Cocktail Bar after, and service was amazing there! It honestly saved our night, as hardworking professionals in healthcare. AVOID AVELO RESTAURANT! ITS NOT “ FINE DINING”, YOU WILL LEAVE ANGRY AND DISAPPOINTED!.
SERVICE IS SO TERRIBLE, THEY ACT STUCK UP? WILL NEVER GO BACK
Pros: Food was okay, Okay decor, Easy parking
Cons: Service, Atmosphere , Food was okay
Guest