There's an excellent restaurant (or... it was) in Palo Alto named Nola that moved to this model recently. Been many times, but the last time I took some guests from out of town there and it was nothing short of awful and an embarrassing experience. They work in the restaurant industry so are typically lax about minor gaps in service but...this is just such an unforced error that it's hard not to feel ripped off.

After that I've learned to refuse patronizing any of these restaurants.