Apart from our great tour guide, Katy, my family's experience on this tour was very disappointing. My father has celiac disease, which I indicated twice on the ticket form, and this has never been an issue on previous food tours we've done with him. I know not all restaurants always have gluten free options, but on previous tours they've gone above and beyond to ensure his experience is as enjoyable as everyone else on the tour by providing adequate food substitutes. This wasn't the case with Downcity.
After being told by our guide there would be gluten free pasta at our third stop, Sarto, we arrived to nothing being prepared for my dad. Our guide immediately told us there was miscommunication and the restaurant forgot to plate his food, but ensured us gluten free pasta was still being prepared for him. Guess this was another miscommunication, since pasta was never delivered but rather the smallest portion of salad instead. Needless to say, my dad was underwhelmed. When I spoke with the owner of Downcity, Paula, and voiced how unacceptable it was for Sarto to forget to plate my dad's food, she immediately blamed our tour guide, the restaurant, chaos of the day, and even me for the misunderstanding rather than take full accountability on behalf of her company.
She dismissed my concern as the only complaint she’s ever received and failed to acknowledge any wrongdoing on her company for how the situation at Sarto was handled. She said I bore responsibility for this mishap since her company states they can't guarantee food allergies, even though this issue isn't with the food we received but with the food we didn't. Her company failed to properly inform Sarto, so her blaming me for this miscommunication was unprofessional and unacceptable. Her complete lack of accountability for this situation was unnerving, so if you have a food allergy I would stay clear of this company.
Одговор домаћина
Jul 2019
To begin, I would like to thank Erin and her family for participating in our tour and for reviewing us. I truly regret that her father’s experience on our tour was not optimal. Unfortunately, a confluence of circumstances contributed to a change of a tasting substitution for a gluten-free food allergy that Erin’s father found disappointing.We have moved to rectify this with the tasting location in the future by providing a comparable gluten-free option.
Just to reiterate, our policy clearly states on our website and within the ticketing process prior to purchase., as stated,
“PLEASE NOTE: Although we do our best, we cannot always make gluten free, seafood or other specific diet substitutions at all locations.
With special dietary restrictions, the best possible substitutions are provided, though there may be stops that no tastings are available depending on your specific restriction.
Our tour tastings have been chosen purposely and the food experience is best enjoyed with as many of these as possible.”
We work very hard and are committed to setting customer expectations up front. We are not in the business of disappointing people. When we do encounter a problem, we always strive to gather all the information we can in order to resolve the matter in an effort to not only allay the frustration of the customer, but also to minimize the chances of the problem occurring again. Resolution is our goal and our hope is that it is also a goal of the disappointed customer. We attempted to resolve this by phone, but after leaving a message, we never received a return call, only a hostile email. It is unfortunate that we failed at resolving this outside of a public forum. We are all human and we all make mistakes, despite the fact that everybody is making their best effort.
Considering that out of seven tasting locations on this tour, and that this was the only aspect that Erin pointed to negatively, I assume the rest of her experience was positive, so a one-star rating seems rather extreme and perhaps punitive. Small businesses strive to maintain a good reputation online and we all need to use this platform in a responsible manner. We feel that the hundreds of positive reviews we have received on this platform are more representative of the customer experience on our tours.
We at Rhode Island Red Food Tours are committed to providing the most enjoyable experience for our customers; be it the food tastings, the historic and cultural information we impart, or the social interactions of the collective participants. We promise to always do our best!