XS has to have THE WORST service i have ever witnessed. And not just once...pretty much almost every time i order from there (eat-in, carry-out AND delivery). Two times i went there and both times i was left wandering around wondering where to sit, if i needed to be seated, etc. Then once we did get seated it took forever to get our order...even the people sitting next to us were like "umm...is someone going to take our order?"

Then i thought, maybe i will get them to deliver, thus averting the seating debacle...an hour later i call up and see where my food is...turns out they forgot i even ordered and said they couldn't deliver anymore and i would have to come and pick it up.

Another time i thought, ok how about i just pick up, you can't really mess that up. They tell me 15 minutes, i wait 20 and then drive over to pick it up...when i walk in...they look at me like i have three heads "you called in an order?" and then i had to stand there for 20 minutes while i waited for them to cook my order.

I have said a ton of times that "i will never...ever...order from them again"...sometimes to their face it was that frustrating. Yet everytime i yearn for some shumai dumplings or just a good breakfast i find myself leaning in that direction.

It's really sad, because that place could be great...I am seriously left thinking "how can this not be fixed yet?" it almost seems like no one even cares.

just thinking about it is frustrating me.

Golden West in Hamden - The food is always great, but somewhere between all the ironic t-shirts, skin tight jeans and thick black glasses the concept of quick friendly service is lost.

As for places with bad service but good food I nominate One World Cafe. We eat there about once every two weeks, and we finally started sitting at the bar because it is the only way to get decent service at that place. They seem to be consistently short one waitperson. The bartenders are awesome though.

And No. 1 Chinese Kitchen is my favorite. After trying many a Chinese takeout place after moving to Baltimore this is the only one I order from now. Just ate dinner from there on Tuesday.

Top ten places with great food and questionable service ---> Pazo. I've simply stopped going. It's miserable.

Top ten places where you keep going, but don't know why you keep going back ---> Helen's Garden. The food is mediocre.

I have to say that Samos in Greek town is a place I can't resist eventhough the service is very uneven. 2 weeks ago, It took 30 minutes for them to deliver the appetizers. Currently Samos is on my 6 month s#!+ list. But I'll be back in spring. They have the best gyro in B-more!
I have to agree that One World Cafe has really bad service. [Sorry, nestee, I have to do a little deleting here just so you, the Sun and I don't get sued :-)]

Another bad place: Redstar in Fells Point. They're just stuck-up [$$$$$$$$].

Oh Yea, No. 1 Chinese Kitchen is dope. Definitely one of the better Chinese carry-outs in baltimore.
But a better dingy carry-out is Chokchai Thai Food on Harford Road. The owner/ cook is surly, but he makes great Thai food for cheap. Take out, or eat-in and watch the Hon's stumble in and out of the Dutch Mill across the street. Truly a unique Baltimore Experience

Definitely Golden West. It takes forever for them to take your order and even longer to make your food. I have an impatient 3-year-old who can't wait 45 minutes for his dinner...yet, I still go back for the Huevos Montulenos.

The service at XS is a complete atrocity.
And I am postively delighted to see that someone else has had problems with the service at Red Star! We still go there all the time, because the turkey burgers and sweet potato fries are to die for ... but my advice is to order two beers at a time and don't go hungry! The servers (even brand new ones) definitely treat the tables as an afterthought. Servers seem to be much more interested in chatting with each other at the bar while your beer languishes on their tray than delivering your beverages promptly. And their snotty attitudes are uncalled for.

I have to agree with Golden West. I like the food and the kitsch, but the service is really bad. Everything takes forever.

Every now and again I think about going, but my wife refuses to ever go there again.

You won't read anymore 7-banned word descriptives from me: )
Another good dish at Redstar: Tuna Ceviche w/ capers. Probably the best in Fells Point. But the service is the absolute pits! Run!Don'tWalk! away from the Redstar.

I quit going to XS a while ago because the service was always horrible. I never had one good experience there and I definitely gave them plenty of chances.

Golden West service is always slow and indifferent (unless you sit in the bar) but I love it there so much that I'll probably never give it up! I just don't go when I am totally starving. Nobody else has brunch like Golden West! Although, I wish they'd bring back the Bismarck!

Not a restaurant, but a standout establishment with terrible service would have to be Goldberg's Bagels, which I recently visited for the first time. I've never been treated with such a mixture of rudeness and apathy (admittedly on a slow mid-Thursday morning). Not a good first impression.

My experience, for your amusement: I placed an order online, giving them nearly twice the requested time before arriving at the store to attempt the pickup. Walked in, saw signs for bagel orders and deli orders but none for pickup, so silly me, I go to the bagel order area and inquire about my order. A girl making a sandwich asks two of her colleagues to assist me, and they engage in the classic I-don't-wanna-be-bothered-you-go-do-it dance. The loser brusquely informs me that I need to go to the cashier. Fine, my rookie mistake.

At the cashier, more spectacular customer service awaits. The cashier poked around a small stack of bags, determined that my order was not among them, and then leaned toward her colleagues and halfheartedly asked them to look. It took at least 4 different people a good leisurely 5 minutes to determine that they hadn't bothered filling the order. This doesn't include the 2 or 3 other employees who were lounging around eating soup behind the counter.

Once a particularly industrious employee started filling the order, he showed me that the printout of the online order had cut off so he couldn't even tell all of what was in my order. Bagels finally in hand, I run out, never having been so relieved to be out of a store.

The really disheartening part of all this is that I probably will go back in spite of all the mess. Those bagels are bar none the best I've ever had. Anything less than perfection and no one would ever patronize that store twice, but sadly, they've got fantastic food. I've come to realize that nowadays it's asking a great deal to expect any modicum of what passes for customer service, but I was still shocked by that experience.

All this talk of XS in Mount Vernon reminds me of a hidden gem . . . why hasn't Elizabeth ever mentioned Sascha's 527? She's mentioned Donna's, all of the variations of "the Saffron," the Helmand, of course, and Ixia. Sascha's is overlooked for no good reason, and I hope it's not because the restaurant has not paid the Baltimore Sun top dollars to have it reviewed. Sascha's is one of my favorite places in Baltimore City, and I wish it got more press than it currently receives.

Elizabeth, as I have read about your frequent vacations to sundry locations, I have always presumed that you were just spending the rewards of a two income, hard-working family. Now, in the past week and most recently in this post, I find that you have been taking kickbacks. My question is: Do you need an assistant to pick up the envelops? I am volunteering!

As if I would still be working!

Re: Goldberg's. Seems silly to complain about rudeness and apathy in a New York style bagel joint. Sure, we are in Baltimore, but the bagels are that much more authentic when served up with a little NY attitude.

i third the nomination for golden west. the service is absolutely beyond the pale. a friend of mine summed it up nicely: the golden west is the abusive boyfriend that you keep going back to and you don't know why....

i also don't know why i keep going back to holy frijoles. the food is way below average and the menu hasn't changed since it opened. and yet, i still find myself sitting there every other month or so, picking at my none-too-delish tacos.

A new one, after yesterday's experience: Nacho Mama's. They've cleaned the place up (read: ruined the atmosphere -- the new look can only be described as sterile) even though a dozen or so servers were working (including five or six behind the bar) all seemed bothered by our presence, it took a good five minutes to get the sides of salsa and guac I had requested, and one server who dropped by (at least four waited on us while we were there) went outside to have a chat with a friend for a few minutes before even asking the bartender for our bottle of Miller Lite. Horrific. The food isn't even that good (especially without salsa or guac), and it'll be a long while before we go back.

I'd say that Loco Hombre is a place that we go from time to time with the expectation that the service will be horrible. They never let me down. Even with the old menu the service was slow and unprofessional. With the new, more expensive menu, I would expect wait staff to be more informed about what they are serving but almost never are. Good luck hearing about the specials. The service at the bar at Alonso's often makes eating there a safer bet in spite of how crowded it gets.

I'm not sure where to post my comment, so I thought the ongoing discussion in this area would work. I went to Tabrizi's Saturday night. It was forgettable. The food was neither good nor bad and the service was fine. Oh well. I like the location, the renovated space is so much better (especially the open kitchen) and I think the outdoor seating is going to be great come next Spring/Summer. Curious what others have experienced or think.

I am shocked by the negative comments about Red Star. I eat there all the time, actually twice last week and I find the service to be very attentive and friendly. Red Star is my go to place when I have friends in town. The food and atmosphere are great and it is non-smoking!!

I agree with all the comments re: XS. We've been there 3 or 4 times, and each time I decide to never go there again. We've finally reached that point after too many "benefits of the doubt" and "it'll be better next time." And is it just my imagination or did they have Freedom Fries for a while there? Shudder...

I have to say that Corks was a complete disappointment. The food was okay but our server- a woman who looked like she couldn't have cared less about being there- huffed when we asked for refills on our drinks. It took almost a half hour to get them in the first place. She ignored us right up til the end of the meal when it was tip time.

Another one is Wine Market- the food is great but the past two times I've been there the waiter has forgotten the side dishes and then they never come back to check on the food so we went without both times.

Red Star has some of the best food in Fells Point, hands down. The service however is hit or miss. I have had great service some days with attentive and friendly servers, and others where the service leaves some to be desire. A few months ago I was there for brunch and I swore I would never come back. It took forever to get our food, our waters never got refilled, my coffee only got refilled once, half way, from the dregs of the coffee pot after I implored the waitress for some more hangover-curing caffeine.

And yet I went back, because the food is incredible.

XS is another place that has great food mired by atrocious service. I recall asking a waiter one time where to sit, and he flat out told me "well, you can go eat somewhere else." Not, "let me find you a table" or "it's going to be a few minutes," but he told me to leave his restaurant.