Restaurante Silvestre

One of the best San Jose’s restaurants, good also for people in need of a gluten free menu. Interesting menu, despite the portions are quite big. Interesting wine chart. service good but a little slow.

Shockingly bad service, communication, and coordination from the staff. This was my first experience ever with feeling offended and disrespected at a dining establishment in any country. To summarize I was provided contradicting information from 2 separate servers over whether or not a dish I had already partially consumed, contained gluten/wheat, which I’m allergic to. This information was already disclosed to the restaurant prior to arriving for my partners birthday. None of it was actually relayed to the staff. I made sure to reiterate this to each and every server as soon as we sat down. The first “complimentary” dish that was served after communicating this contained wheat. Luckily I made sure to ask…again. During our main course meal I was told by a waitress to stop eating the dish I had as it contained wheat, after she was sent over to better describe what we were eating. She went to speak to the original server and when she returned her whole demeanor had changed as well as the information about the dish. Apparently it now was gluten free. Obviously this might instill some doubt in an individual as to what the truth is or what the previous dishes might have contained. I asked for clarification regarding the previous dishes, if they were indeed safe to eat as well, adding that I had felt hot/flushed. The waitress replied with “maybe it’s just psychological” and quickly walked away from us without saying anything else. To some people this could be a life threatening situation, luckily for me it’s just discomfort and facial swelling. I pulled her aside asking why she would think it was appropriate to speak to a customer in this manner, so dismissively, as if I was someone who she had known for a lifetime, not 30 seconds. She went on to provide her own story about “food allergies” instead of simply apologizing and acknowledging that she was out of line. This only made the situation worse and I asked her to leave our table, feeling disbelief and anger at the situation. At this point they attempted to make good of the situation by offering us dessert, since it was my partner’s birthday. This experience had already ruined the whole visit and it was too late to feel good about anything that had occurred. Once again this could be a life threatening situation for some people and totally unacceptable behavior from a person who is employed at a “fine dining” establishment and who is expected to put their guests at ease and explain menu items clearly. I would not recommend visiting this restaurant while in San Jose.

What a disaster birthday. We had a reservation, but waited 15 minutes for someone to even get us water. The sea bass I ordered was smothered with mayo-like sauce and fish was bland. If you have food allergies like gluten, you’re gonna have to constantly remind your server of it literally for each meal. This is also the first time I’ve ever encountered a server or anyone that would tell you, your allergies are just psychological.