A fine food experience ruined by an incompetent operation.

After four visits to Schneitter’s Sunday Brunch Buffet, I rated Schneitter’s "Very Highly Recommended" for the consistent fine quality of the food offered. After 8 visits, the food remains excellent, but the incompetence of this operation leads to advising you stay away. It’s too great a risk that the staff will ruin your expensive meal. A brief summary of some of the operational problems:

1) published phone numbers that nobody answers, and once I let it ring for 10 minutes just to see what happened. 2) But then, if you have question, it’s no help if some does answer the phone, for the staff seemed totally uninformed of anything except the name of the place. One day, I got three people and three different answers to my question. Another time, a positive sounding answer that turned out to be wrong. Another time, four different answers. 3) If you need some information on the restaurant, forget it. There seems to be no way to reach them by phone. All calls, should they happened to be answered, go to the ignorant front desk. 4) although the restaurant seems well staffed, staff is never around if you need something. They all hang in the kitchen. The buffet has a carving board (roast beef, lamb, etc.) and an omelet bar, but there is never any one in sight to carve or cook. Nor is anybody watching from the kitchen to see when if are needed.

Schneitter’s advertised a special Christmas brunch ($45), from 11am to 5pm. We made reservations for 4:15pm, two weeks in advance. Called the day before to ask about it. Arrived on the appointed day at 3:45, to be greeted by the hostess who said the brunch ended at 3:30pm. We said, we have reservations for 4:15pm. She said the chef called everyone and told theme there was a time change. He didn’t call us, or else the reservationist screwed up when the reservation was originally made. Lots of people come skiing in Utah at Christmas, many even on Christmas Day, and this episode is especially important to them because an open restaurant in Utah is hard to find. If you do not have an advanced reservation – days in advance–  you will stand in line and wait a long, long time to eat Christmas diner once you find an open establishment in Utah. Our community, surrounded by ski resorts, has four high quality resort restaurants. Not one was open on Christmas. So eating at Schneider’s is a crap shoot. If everything goes right – and it never has in our experience – you can get a fine meal. If things go wrong, you might not eat. Since there are so many reliable fine restaurants in the vicinity, why take a chance?