Bravo

Still going to Ceili tomorrow and will definitely read this blog regularly for new suggestions.

In fact, two weeks later and they were still having service issues according to Chow. So this goes beyond just “opening day.” That’s a long time to not correct things in the service industry.

Basically, anyone who read what I posted would have gone knowing that Ceili Cottage was a positive experience but newly opened and still working things out. And that I would certainly return. I wanted potential patrons to go prepared for a wait and not be disappointed.

Better, I think, than the Globe and Mail review. They published on the 4th of July I think, (edited since) and would certainly have visited a day after me at best. It too, was a positive review with caveats, but no mention of it being just opened, so it doesn’t even give the reader that clue of why things might not be smoothly running, especially when a reader goes for a visit in the week after the review. A disservice, indeed.

Also, if you work with any of the Ceili Cottage kids (or they’re following along, like maybe niceandall), put ego/feelings aside and utilize what’s been said here and on Chow (and anywhere else!) as free testing feedback. Heck, you even make money off of us since we paid for our food! (Hmn… post brewing here…)

I understand the point you’re trying to make about the excitement and rush of a new experience. But on the flipside, have you considered that most (90%) restaurants need to find a groove before they’ve worked out the kinks? It’s wholly unfair on even a business level to be judging them based on those errors.

Every restaurant on the planet has made a few mistakes on their opening day. If all of us visited that restaurant on teh first day and reported on the mistakes, we’d kill the industry. you can’t be 100% objective but there is a balance.

if one of us goes to a new restaurant, it’s because we’re excited about something new in the Toronto scene. If we make a post about it, it’s because we want to share our experience with others. Neither of us has any interest in assigning some meaningless star rating to a restaurant, whether it’s been open a week or a year.

also, as I pointed out elsewhere, you can’t actually objectively review a place at any time.