La Pensione Hotel in San Diego

My Fiancé and I just dined here recently and we were both very excited because we were celebrating our anniversary and it was our first time out in months due to work and unforeseen medical circumstances.

I called ahead to make a reservation and the hostess was a doll. She was sweet in asking if we'd been here before, which we hadn't. And if we were celebrating anything special, I beamed and said yes our anniversary. The hostess was engaged the whole time - and said she would ensure the server would be aware we were here as a celebration.

When we arrived we were 15 minutes early so we had a drink at the bar - the drinks are amazing and the ambiance is magical bliss.

The hostess found us at the bar and escorted us to our table, once again asking, "are you two celebrating anything special?" Blushing from our amazing drinks and the fact that we were there celebrating something special, We told her it was our anniversary and she smiled and ensured our server would be made aware of this.

However, Our server never asked, "what brought you in tonight?" Or anything. She simply and coldly just took our order and later we had to ask her for additional drink orders. She failed on the experience completely.

And the worst part is this place is AMAZING. The food, drinks, ambiance and location are on point. But that night I left the restaurant feeling empty or forgotten about, or something like that. Maybe because I work in a similar service based industry, I am more sensitive or aware of the errors when they occur, but overall the server's demeanor had a negative lasting impact on my impression of this establishment.