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BEWARE!! Do NOT go to Rose Cottage unless you know the owners will take a preferential liking to you, or at least that’s the clear message I rec’d from my dining experience there.
My friend and I have been enjoying high Tea for over 20 yrs now, and were very excited to experience the Rose Cottage in Pasadena, but if we only knew. We arrived at the cottage house at12:40 for our 1PM reservation, Edmund greeted us and offered that we browse the charming store inside. We were the first party to arrive (this is important). At first impression, Edmund seemed very nice and friendly, however, his demeanor did not translate into professional and considerate treatment.
After browsing the charming place for about 10 min, 2 young women, arrived 5 min, then after that, a party of 3 arrived. Now it was 1PM, time to be seated. Edmund walks over to the 2 young women who arrived AFTER us, escorted them to their table first, even though we arrived first and should have been seated first. Ok, no big deal, but then Edmund walks over to us and says I have to seat the larger party first, the party of 3, he said, that is our policy, I thought to myself, the party of 2 that arrived after us was not a larger party and you still seated them before us and now you’re telling us the 2nd party that arrived after us will be seated before us?!
Considering we had a reservation and were the first to arrive, I thought this was very disrespectful and unprofessional, this is not a large restaurant where there are 15 employees running around, so as you can imagine, with only the 2 owners managing the place, we felt the treatment was made by their personal choice. By this point, I was angry, I thought, my friend drove over an hour to meet me in Pasadena and to be treated this way, I’m certain that if parties have a reservation for the same time, the first party that arrives, should be seated first, it’s the decent thing to do, you would think.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t end there, the parties that arrived after us and got seated before us were all seated at tables with comfy, padded chairs, but my friend and I were seated at the corner with the most uncomfortable tiny wooden chairs with little or no AC hitting us. I thought, why!? We had not said nor done anything to merit this type of treatment. My back was hurting, and bottom too. I have never sat on a chair at a restaurant that was so uncomfortable. So Painful. Very disappointed with my experience at Rose Cottage.
Mary and another lady who served us were very kind, and lovely, I think they knew I was upset, because one of the ladies I do not know her name, she tried to make us feel better by saying we were sitting at the celebrity table, and I said in shock, wow, that’s surprising, because it’s in the corner of the restaurant with rickety tiny chairs. She also said, we would have seated you at the table by the window if you had specified it when we made the reservation, but when I called to make reservations, they did not mention this and if I’ve never been there, how would I know to ask?
This was the most unpleasant dining experience I have ever had, simple consideration and professional courtesy was not present at the Rose Cottage, I will never go back, and Edmund, you need to stop picking the clients you want to give preferential treatment to, and allow everyone to have a decent dining experience. Shameful.