Friday, October 26, 2007

Dining out....

Howard and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings a couple of weeks ago.
We had not been in a while because the last time we had gone, it was real crowded with a ton of kids and really bad service. We thought we would give it another shot because the food is good and it was close by.
We came in and sat ourselves. It was not that crowded, good, it won't be long until we get served.

WRONG!!

As we sat at the table, we began to wonder if we had sat at a table that had no server.
There were a few that walked by us from time to time, but no one even acknowledged we were there. (...and they were not even that busy)
Finally, a girl came up to the table and sat down in the chair next to me and gave kind of a "huff" and asked us what we wanted to drink, all without even the tiniest smile. She got up and left. Well, it must have been one of those special nights where they go to another country to import the beer. Oh wait, the beer we ordered is made in America.
I know! She must have had to drive to the distributor to get it because it took forever (at least it seemed that way at the time).
Not only are we thirsty, but we still had not placed our order for dinner.
Ok, here she comes. She took our order and left. Again, gone forever!
After a good 20 minutes (we had only ordered a small basket of wings and a sandwich), another girl walks up with a tray that has our food on it.
Well, at least some of it. I said, "oh, there is supposed to be onion rings too."
The girl looked at me like she did not speak English (actually more like she had never heard anyone speak before) and just stood there staring at me and shaking her head no.
I said "yes". Then she said "No! You will have to take that up with her."
Howard and I were in shock that she responded that way.
Finally when we saw our server, I said, "I did not get the onion rings that I had ordered."
She looked at the ticket as if I was making it up. Then she said she would get the order in. A little while later, she brought the onion rings without saying ONE word.
After we finished eating, we waited and waited on her to bring the check so we could pay.
Once again, we waited and waited and waited.
We could not believe the service we were getting. She was flat out rude and on top of that made us wait an extreme amount of time to get our drinks, to take our order, to bring our food, to bring our check, to run the card..... She had to be the most inefficient server we had seen.
I suppose you can guess what kind of tip she got!

Howard and I both believe in tipping good for good service and tipping 15% even if the service is not so good, but honestly, this was beyond bad. I am fairly sure we won't be going back there again. The food is not that good to endure that kind of service.

Then last week, we went to a football game to watch my niece cheer.
After the game, we went to Carrabbas to eat dinner. It was there we had another strange experience.
This time it was not bad service or bad food but an interesting couple that was seated directly behind me.
As they walked through the restaurant toward the table behind me, they were being paid a lot of attention.
The guy was of slim build, on the short side, rapper looking with an afro.
The girl was much taller, long black hair, Asian with long legs in the shortest shorts imaginable. Oh I forgot to mention her outfit was bright colors made of satin and she had on high heel boots to her knees.....hmmmm, are you getting the visual? Well, she was a la.. woman and it was the evening!
They certainly turned every ones heads.
When they were seated in the booth, they both sat on the same side. Then moments later started making out.
I could not see them, but Howard could. Apparently almost everyone else could see them too.
How embarrassing.

Have you had any interesting dining out experiences lately? If so, please share.

Have a great weekend!
~xo
Lee Ann

11 comments:

Unknown said...

I feel the same way about Pizza Hut as you do Buffalo Wild Wings.... I waited about an hour and a half one time after we placed our order.. I left without paying for our drinks.. and told the manager what i thought of the service! Hope you have better luck next time!

Phats said...

I am not a big fan of BW's anymore either for the same reason, must be a universal thing.

You come to Indiana I'll take you to Harry's you'll love it!

BKS said...

Most of my dining out experiences take place in my Yukons front seat haha. I do hate crappy service and reward it greatly in the form on miniscule tips. I dont feel it is my job to pay these people but if i do get decent or even good service I dont mind tipping generously. More times than not though lately the service has been severely lacking in quality.

Saur♥Kraut said...

I have definately had some HORRIBLE experiences lately, and I was sure I'd written about them - but no! I don't have the time to write about them right now, but there are some horrific waitresses that seem to think that THEY are doing the customer a great favor to wait on them at all!

Unknown said...

I know everyone has stories about bad service. If you eat out, you're bound to get it at some point. Fortunately, we get more good service than bad.

In one of my classes, I learned that if a person has a positive experience, they are likely to tell one person. If they have a bad experience, they will tell 10. Go figure.

JLee said...

I have a friend who LOVES Buffalo Wild Wings and goes there all the time. I have never been.

We had a homeless non-English speaking guy walk up to us while we were eating in this local restaurant the other night and ask for money. (we kinda figured out from his gestures) We said no, and he kept on asking and asking, and the waitress just walked around him and didn't say a word! It was crazy...

Lee Ann said...

~gkw ~ Hey! It has been a while, glad to see you again.

phats ~ Is that a promise?

bks ~ Hello! Glad you came by the Castle....it is good to see you.

Saur ~ I know you must be busy, it has been a while since you have come over. Hope you have a great weekend.

Ladyeve ~ Welcome to the Castle. I hope you will come by more often, you are always a welcomed guest.

Jlee ~ That is crazy. I am surprised she did not say anything or at least get the manager to do something.

Phats said...

That's a guarentee

rob said...

Oh dear! What a restaurant!

I could never wait that long. Firstly, if they don't take the order quickly, I'm outta there.

Ditto if they take the order but than take ages to bring the food.

And if they don't want to take my money at the end of the meal, I leave the money at the desk or on the table.

And I'm Scottish, in Scotland we don't tip.


Another good idea - if I'm buying a newspaper at the newsagent, and there's a long queue because somebody's buying lottery tickets or settling a bill, I walk to the counter and dump the money on the counter, then walk out. Try always to have some loose change in my pocket for occasions like that.


Queueing at the supermarket is a bit difficult to avoid, but at least they lay on free magazines and chocolate for queuers. At least I think the chocolate's free.

jamwall said...

"Hey guys! How's everything tasting?
Hey guys! How's everything tasting?
Hey guys! How's everything tasting?
Hey guys! How's everything tasting?
Hey guys! How's everything tasting?
The bill? Great!
Now get out so we can get another set of warm bodies to occupy your table so we can pay our teenage wait staff so they can buy bad music and pay for their text messaging!"

Anita Baker said...

you would hate to eat out with me.

that bitch of a server you got would have had her head handed to her on a plate.

my way of thinking is that yes it's a restaurant, but they are paid to give you service. you are paying them to give you service. if the service is bad i won't ever go there again and like always i will say something to the server.