Tuesday, January 30, 2007

I'd like to speak with the manager please...



Today we had lunch at Red Robin. I am not sure what their deal is, but that particular restaurant has by far the worst service of any establishment we frequent. You'd think we'd have learned our lesson by now...given that we've had the joint on 3 month boycotts at least 5 times now. I guess our need to keep punishing ourselves stems from my love of their Chicken Tender salad--my tummy growls just thinking of it. Anyway, back to my griping.
I hate hate hate their small tables where you are an inch away from the smelly guy to your right and two inches away from the loud talker on your left. But, I could deal with the tables if the wait staff was even mildly competent, or if not that at least pleasant in their inefficiency. I always leave ranting to Andy about how I will write letters to their headquarters outlining my complaints and plans for helping them make amends to the dining public . Of course, my follow through leaves much to be desired, and judging by today's experience, they have not gotten any of my suggestions via telepathy either.

Today, the waiter rushes over before we've even sat down and stands there staring at us as we try to get Chase strapped into the high chair. (Which by the way is quite the endeavor as he's a squirmer who prefers slouching to sitting straight) I look up with what I hope was a polite "could you give us a second look" and said, "diet coke please". He's back in like 3.5 seconds with our drinks, and then huffs at us when we're not ready to order. So to seek his revenge, he decides not to return to get the order for 10 minutes--but hey at least we had our drinks. Then our waiter did the following: brings Andy a milkshake with no straw, rushes off before we can even ask for a straw, forgets the french fries, brings me honey mustard instead of ranch, forgets to bring a straw when we finally got the opportunity to ask for it, and leaves the check for us to sign without a pen--of course rushing off before we can ask for one. Now, none of these things would send me over the edge at any other restaurant, except that at this particular Red Robin, this is the service that you get nearly EVERY TIME you walk in the door. Good times were most definitely not had by all. Even Chase looks annoyed. It appears that we are in for another Red Robin free three months. Anyone know where I can get my Chicken Tender Salad fix until then?

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:23 AM

    As I say all the time, I LOVE reading your posts--you truly have a gift. You should look into writing smalle pieces for a paper or magazine or something. Seriously. Anyway, I've never been to a Red Robin, but have heard several people say that the food is excellent, but that is cramped. Guess in your case, that holds up.

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  2. Ahh, thanks. What a great compliment! You made my day.

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