Anything that could go wrong did and the problems were not related to being short staffed. Problems directly due to manager and chef.
Issues began when trying to make reservations. Knowing we would be traveling thru Brookings on a Saturday night we tried to make...reservations about six weeks in advance based on Trip Advisor Rating. We were told their system didn't record that far ahead but they would make a note. We called back two weeks in advance and were given a reservation. At the time of this call my wife indicated she had an allergy to the onion family and nothing was said to indicate that would be an issue
Upon arrival we were seated along the wall at a small table with bench seating on one-side and a tall bar stool on the other. This would have been ok for us except (1) the cushion on the bench side didn't cover two or three inches where we would sit and (2) the table was out of balance by one or two inches so that everything would slide to the right. Waitress tried to balance the table without success. We asked if we could move to the table next to us since it had just been cleared and were told no it was reserved for someone else who had not arrived. Eventually, someone changed their mind and we were moved to the next table. Shortly, thereafter a couple came in , one of the persons used a cane and they tried to place them at our former table- how they expected a person with a cane to sit on a bar stool at an out of balance table I can't fathom. They complained and were given a different table.
So we looked over the menu and were prepared to order. My wife again mentioned her allergy and asked if the chicken marsalla could be done without shallots (to be fair, the menu mentioned the shallots). She was told no it was in the sauce. My wife then asked about three other menu items none of which mentioned anything to do with the onion family ( veal piccata, fettuccini alfredo and cavetappi) The waitress returned and said no all of those also had sauces with onion issues. My wife asked couldn't they do a simple butter sauce on the fettuchini . The chef said no- we can only assume they use a premade sauce and either don't want to be bothered to make any adjustments for customer issues or the chef is incapable of basic cooking skills. Eventually, my wife found one item they could serve her. Meantime, after all this people now seated next to us were greeted by a waiter who told them of house specials- which was never offered to us!
We ordered a bottle of wine from their wine list. After about 15 minutes we were told they were out of the wine we selected. Meantime salads had arrived. We had to look again at the wine list and the next wine of the same varietal was decidedly less quality than our first selection.
Finally, the entrees arrive and what I ordered was supposed to be veal piccate with roasted red potatoes per the menu turned out to be mashed potatoes and a piece of veal with no piccata sauce but some kind of gravy.
Not sure how this restaurant survives let alone gets a Trip Advisor award!More