echo

As a vegetarian I often am unsure where to go when I travel. The food here was so good! Luckily we arrived before the crowd and got seated right away! Where we were seated was a little dark. I would have preferred to sit somewhere more well-lit. To my surprise, there were at least two folks that worked here that signed pretty well. I really appreciated being able to order in my everyday language with Sav! Huge kudos to City O' City for hiring ASL fluent staff! 

Rachel Berman

Chris and I are regulars at this restaurant. We love their vegan/vegetarian menu and the fact that it's a stone throw away from our apartment. I'm rating their restaurant based on their ability to communicate with us. Despite their delicious food that keeps us coming back, we've had ups and downs with them, and it depends on the waiter.  First, I can name two waiters who know basic sign language, which I really appreciate and always wish to get their service.  There are also other waiter staff who are not quite there in terms of "deaf-friendliness" when serving us. We use Cardzilla to place our orders, and there are some staff who misunderstands our orders and bring us the wrong food. It becomes frustrating for us because written English is our only way to communicate with them, and we often wonder, are we being clear? or their English writing skills are not up at par? It would be helpful if they double check with us and clarify our orders to ensure that they understand our orders, and we will be willing to adjust the English language to make it more clear. We had one situation where I was in a group of Deaf and hearing people and all used different communication modes to order. I believe the waiter was nervous and new, and we showed our saved order in Cardzilla (that has worked with other waiters/waitresses) and showed it to the waiter. The order was wrong 4x, even after I asked my hearing friend to interpret our order very carefully. I'm not sure what led to this massive misunderstanding, but I left the restaurant so disappointed especially when the waiter didn't look at me and Chris directly when he was apologizing. Instead, he apologized to my hearing friend. It was apparent he wasn't comfortable communicating with us, and we are not one to bite, but when we are upset, hungry and the order was repeatedly wrong, the waiter not communicating directly with us and a manager becomes involved, it becomes embarrassing, and the spotlight is on us. I think perhaps a little cultural sensitivity training should be put into action to prevent situations like that from happening as I'm aware that other Deaf people frequent there as well. I love this restaurant and want to support it and make it more #deaffriendly so we and others don't have to go there worrying that our order would be misunderstood again.