On different nights, salad and soup arrived before the appetizer, and dishes were delivered while we were still eating the previous course and jammed onto the small table. On one visit I heard about the night's specials as they were recited to the next table after I had ordered. We waited a long time before dessert menus were offered, and dirty dishes were left on the table when it was finally served. An occasional lapse would be merely annoying, but the servers at the Merchant of Venice need some training in the basics. It's hard to focus on the food when the service is driving you nuts.
City dwellers tend to get jaded about eating out.
There are good restaurants everywhere, and if we don't like the way they fold the napkin over the bread basket at one place, we can walk down the street to the next. Out in the vast stretches of suburbia, where the majority of Americans actually live, the choices aren't so great. If you live anywhere near Hillsboro, they're a lot better now.