OpenTable

This software is absolute garbage. There's nothing good about it and it's ruining the restaurant I love.

We wrote a review on Open Table (copied below) and have made multiple calls to find out why it has not been published. They cannot explain it and our review remains unpublished. It appears that their loyalty is solely to the restaurant owner. At this point I question the veracity of even the positive reviews. Our review is corroborated by similar experiences of other diners that wrote reviews that were published on TripAdvisor. So our experience was not unique and should be made known to unsuspecting diners that are considering choosing this restaurant to spend their hard earned money.

Here is what we posted on OpenTable. I do not see any reason why it would be rejected...
PLEASE READ THIS REVIEW! We booked at dream cafe through OpenTable and were seated at 8:00 pm on 9/26/15. After waiting almost 2 hours for our entrees that never came we only had an appetizer and small salad as part of the 4 course prix fixe menu. We had to leave at 9:50 because we had pre purchased movie tickets. The chef/owner started yelling at us from the "kitchen" so my husband went to talk to him to see what his issue was, at which time he started verbally accosting us with expletives and said "he doesn't care that we didn't get our food and we should never come back". He was yelling loud enough for the entire restaurant to hear. If I were another guest and heard this treatment of another diner I would never return. We later discovered that he cancelled our OpenTable reservation 20 minutes after we left so that we would not earn our points. We paid our check which is date and time stamped so clearly not a cancellation. We checked reviews on TripAdvisor and discovered he has done this before. It is just unbelievable. As for the chef/owner's threat to never return... he has NOTHING to worry about. We have no intentions of EVER returning. If he continues to treat his guests this way and the way others have noted in their negative reviews on Trip Advisor, the future of this restaurant looks a bit bleak.

As a Disabled Vietnam Combat Veteran, I made a reservation at Michel's for my wife's birthday. As late 70's seniors, we were looking forward to a nice romantic dinner. I made the reservation via Open Table but also called the restaurant to ensure that we had a open window table for fear of COVID. We arrived 15 minutes late due to our car alarm malfunctioning. I did call the restaurant and informed them about being a few minutes late. The gentleman who answered stated that our table requested was waiting for our arrival. Upon arrival, another couple was in front of us who seemed very friendly with the hostess, almost too much so. She led them to a window table and talked with them for about five minutes. She returned back to her station and stated that we had to wait a little for our table. We were escorted to a terrible table with a concrete wall backing. It was obvious that she gave our table to her friends. When we asked her why we didn't get our requested table, she got very defensive and downright nasty. We stated that we were promised a window table because of our age and Covid concerns. She then said, "We don't promise anything to our customers", unquote.
With that type of poor customer service, we got up from our table and headed for the front door. The manager then interceded to attempt to find us a nice window table, but it looked like Miss Personality had all the bases covered for her favorite customers.
I will never return to this restaurant and I urge all Veterans not to frequent this restaurant. Also, I understand that it is Japanese owned. After spending 30 years working in Japan, the Japanese would never treat customers like this. So, if you're a Japanese tourist, don't eat at this restaurant. You will be disappointed in the customer service. It's truly embarrassing.
To start, management needs to fire this hostess because she's the first person that customers encounter upon arrival. What a way to start a terrible evening with her. She is beyond trainable.

I made a dinner reservation on August 12th for October 9th through opentable for Amada in Philadelphia for 8:00pm to celebrate my wife's bday & we arrived@ 7:50pm. When we arrived & gave our name the hostess could not find my reservation then she asked for a phone # & found it. We were told to wait@ the bar & that someone would come get us when a table became available. It was strange that the hostess had a lost look on her face in reference to the reservation when on October 7th@ 1:51 pm someone from Amada called to confirm my reservation. We were told by the hostess that it would take 10 minutes to get our table, she asked us to go to the bar & that she would come get us. After waiting 40 minutes we went to check the status of our table & we were told there was no table available yet.We asked if they planned for these situations & we were told they did the best they could. We felt that they did not care about how long we waited. Jose Garces being as famous as he is should be more careful in the type of people he hires, unfortunately they are a reflection on him. The hostess just waked away with no "let me check & see what I can do". We walked out very disappointed & we will not go back to any Jose Garces restaurants or recommend them. Very very unhappy with the way we were treated.

We made a reservation 2 wks before Valentine's day at the Farmhouse in Kansas City and when we arrived on Feb. 14 were shown to a 2 topper near the entrance from the kitchen on the north side of the restaurant. We nicely asked the hostess if we could please be seated elsewhere so she took us to a 2 topper in the larger room near where the booster chairs were stacked (an improvement?) where servers emerged from the other side of the kitchen. Three couples were seated at 4 toppers around us within 30 minutes of our arrival so I went to inquire of the same hostess how we might in future secure a table that could hold a couple of drinks, water glasses and a bottle of wine (note we had not yet been served food and actually thought we might return in future). She told me the restaurant uses a random order assignment for tables.

Our mixed drinks were fine; the cheese tray was fine (but don't bill it as local cheese when part comes from Tillamook, Oregon), the tomato soup was ordinary but generous. Things went downhill from there. We ordered a 2009 Rhone and were given a 2011. Neither of us could eat either the lamb (billed as a leg of lamb but shredded and tasting only of preserved lemon) and the smoked chicken with dumplings (chicken tough, dumplings horseradish flavored dough balls, vegetables tough and raw).

Halfway through the meal, the manager asked if we would like to move to the four topper next to our table. She and our waiter tried to turn around an experience but it was already ruined by the hostess and chef. We departed at 7:30 and no one had been seated at the four topper next to us during the 90 minutes we were in the restaurant.

Lose your bizzarre system of allocating tables. The guests who are present should take precedence over the ones who you hope might arrive. It is really insulting to guests who have taken the trouble to reserve. We will not be back ever!

I had accumulated more than 20,000 points on Opentable. I couldn't use them during COVID and they let them expire. I wrote to them and they promised they would reinstate them -- said they were doing that for many people who requested that for the same reason -- and they have not done it. I have written to them to compain 5 times now, without response. It's, of course, not so much about the value of the points -- it's really not a great system and not worth that much -- but is the principle of tellng the truth and doing what you say you will do. Sad.