I was between nine and eleven years old (I don't know exactly how old I was), when my family decided to use three coupons to get some free frozen yogurt from a strip mall with some coupons we had. There was no fine print on those coupons except for the expiration date.
We go there, and there's nobody working, except for one teenage girl who's sitting there, texting. She doesn't greet us or acknowledge that customers have entered the store she works at. She continues texting. We go dispense our frozen yogurt (it's one of those stores that have all the self-serve yogurt and ice cream stands at the back) and go to give the clerk our coupons.
She immediately yells at us, saying "Only one per visit!". We've done this before, several times with no problem. The store was in some sort of program with the elementary school I was in, where if you do xyz you get this many coupons for free yogurt. We tell her that we've done this before multiple times, so she tells us "walk in and out of the store three times and that's three visits.". Somebody had said that that was ridiculous, so she then threatens us that she's going to call her dad here to "beat us up". She then took our yogurt and wouldn't let us have it.
We decided we had had enough and left. She said she was going to call the police because we were "stealing" and we had to pay for it. We left anyway, and she told us she was banned. Obviously some moody teenage girl who works as a cashier and doesn't know the store policies can't just do that, but we weren't going back anyway. The store closed down less than half a year later due to what were presumably the same issues that we dealt with.
My worst was when my dad, another girl from church, and I stopped at a restaurant on our way back from out of town. This was in western Kansas in the late 90s. Anyway, we ordered our meals, and the other two got theirs but I didn't get mine. We waited and waited, still no sandwich. Something like 45 minutes to an hour after we had ordered, we asked what the deal was. They had run out of bread, and the manager had gone to the store to buy more but wasn't back yet. So we decided to just get our money back and head out without my having a sandwich. Except that the employee couldn't refund any money without the manager's authorization, and the manager was at the store. What finally worked was for my dad to insist: "We're not asking for a refund, because no transaction has taken place. We gave you money but never got anything for it in return."
This isn't the worst restaurant experience I've had, but it's worth nothing here.
Many times when running late after work (usually because the early train was cancelled), I used to get a quick meal at the McDonald's in North Station in Boston. In the process, I'd routinely have many instances of, as I'm starting to give my order (#2 meal, sandwiches plain, large fries, and bottled water), having the cashier immediately interrupt me with "Do you want Coke?" (As I have ESRD, I no longer drink Coke, Diet Coke, or similar beverages).
This comment was usually followed with me having to repeat my order to the cashier three or four times. The last time the "Coke" routine happened, I finally yelled back at the cashier. IIRC, it went something like "Look. Please stop putting words in my mouth. I'm intelligent enough to know what I want to order!"
So I then get my meal, then sit down as the train is pulling out, and find out they put ketchup - but nothing else - on my sandwiches (I can eat it, but consider it one of the worst condiments ever devised by man). And it was obviously deliberate a) after telling them three times 'sandwiches PLAIN' and b) the fact they put only ketchup and nothing else on the sandwiches.
Needless to say, I haven't been back there since. These days, if I'm really desperate for something, I usually just get a bottle of water and a bag of chips at the newsstand instead. Otherwise, I will endure the hunger until I get home.
You had me at "McDonald's".....
Quote from: kphoger on October 19, 2017, 02:49:58 PM
You had me at "McDonald's".....
Well, of the various Mickeys I've patronized in the past 30 years (mostly on roadtrips), the North Station one is the ONLY time I've ever encountered a cashier who's attempted to second guess my order before I give it to them. And I can understand doing that once or twice. But for it to happen consistently takes a particular type of clueless bonehead.
On a family vacation years ago, I remember my dad being quite put out with the service we got at a Pizza Hut in one of the NOVA suburbs of DC, but I don't remember exactly what the issue was.
One thing I distinctly remember was the time that a waitress at Cracker Barrel in Richmond, Ky. dumped a bowl of cole slaw in my lap. If I hadn't been with my family, I might have asked her to wipe it off for me. :-D
Worse roadgeek meet experience I can remember was the cluster at the 2010 Southeast Pennsylvania meet.
Ooh! Just remembered! When I was a young kid, my family went to a Mexican restaurant somewhere in the near west suburbs of Chicago. The waitstaff couldn't understand English, and all they would ever bring us was sopapillas–no matter what we said. I don't think we actually ever got anything to eat but sopapillas.
We went to the Cheddar's in Norman once and had our food take an inordinately long time, so we asked what was up. Apparently the waitress dropped the food and they had to remake it. Okay, mistakes happen, whatever. But when the replacement food came out, another long wait later, it was cold.
We ended up not going to Cheddars for a fairly long time. We gave them another chance, and that seems to have been a one-off experience.
Quote from: roadman on October 19, 2017, 03:08:48 PM
Quote from: kphoger on October 19, 2017, 02:49:58 PM
You had me at "McDonald's".....
Well, of the various Mickeys I've patronized in the past 30 years (mostly on roadtrips), the North Station one is the ONLY time I've ever encountered a cashier who's attempted to second guess my order before I give it to them. And I can understand doing that once or twice. But for it to happen consistently takes a particular type of clueless bonehead.
I guarantee you it's because someone's pushing speed of service times. In a fast food place, especially one in a competitive area, every order is clocked. The bad thing is that the clock starts when the cashier says "Hi, how can I help you". Which means that the staff can be on the ball and getting orders out blazingly fast but still get dinged for bad service times by a customer who responds with "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I'll have..................................a............................................nuuuuuuuuuumber.........................mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..................... :hmm:"
So you get that kind of reaction from the staff.
Almost all of my bad restaurant experiences have been one-off situations. But McDonald's takes the cake when it comes to don't-give-a-crap attitudes from employees. I'm to the point of not eating at McDonald's unless it's for a meeting.
Quote from: kphoger on October 19, 2017, 04:39:59 PM
Almost all of my bad restaurant experiences have been one-off situations. But McDonald's takes the cake when it comes to don't-give-a-crap attitudes from employees. I'm to the point of not eating at McDonald's unless it's for a meeting.
I avoid McDonald's due to the complete and total lack of any real flavor in the food. My last experience (about 2-3 years ago) was so bland that it wasn't even funny. There are better fast burger joints out there.
Quote from: kphoger on October 19, 2017, 04:39:59 PM
Almost all of my bad restaurant experiences have been one-off situations. But McDonald's takes the cake when it comes to don't-give-a-crap attitudes from employees. I'm to the point of not eating at McDonald's unless it's for a meeting.
Well, yeah, fast food is an industry where giving a crap is disincentivized.
Most of the people in fast food are there because they cannot get a "better" job, either because they have a criminal record or because they enjoy marijuana and most companies offering "better" jobs test for that. So you're stuck working for $7.25 an hour. The beauty of that is that all of your employer's competitors
also pay $7.25 an hour, so if you get fired, you just go across the street and get a job that's exactly the same, only your uniform color changes.
That, and fast food customers are prone to throwing fits over the most unreasonable stuff (most of the time because they ordered it incorrectly to begin with). So if you're going to be yelled at and paid the same whether or not you do your job right, why
would you give a crap?
I managed a Burger King back in 2009 and I'll still occasionally see my former employees working the drive thru at Taco Bell or Sonic.
I was in Austin, Texas back in 1994 for a Metallica concert. I was at a Denny's style restaurant and I ordered a hamburger plain and dry. When I got it, it had cheese on it. I told the waitress that the order was wrong and she said "Can't you just scrape it off?" I explained to her that I was lactose intolerant and that it would be impossible to remove all the cheese. She took it back and brought it back again...with cheese. I was so angry at this point that I didn't even care but my friends who were with me made her take it back and make me a new burger. I couldn't even eat it at the time and ended up taking it back to the hotel room.
I have had two horrible experiences, and wouldn't have gone back to one if it hadn't been for karaoke.
Okay, first there was this restaurant down on Lake Norman that had a really good karaoke show on Wednesday nights, so I started going there, knowing the DJ. Time and again, and I know I should have stopped going long ago, I was ignored by the wait staff. I've never short-tipped any of them or skipped out on a bill, but one waitress was particularly bad. I sat with a group of people hoping me being with a group might improve my chances of being served. The #(*%) LEANED OVER ME served the others and walked away. It eventually got so bad I went to the manager, who said she'd TALK with them. What was she going to say, "Good job!?!?!?!?" Left at that point and never went back.
Then there was the time at East Coast Wings and Grill in my town. I am a type II diabetic and have to take medication 5-10 minutes before I eat anything. I usually order soup or a salad, and this restaurant has some really good Buffalo Chicken Soup, so I ordered that and specifically asked it to be brought before the meal. I then ordered grilled shrimp tacos with black bean/rice mixture. My wife and I waited 20 minutes, no soup. I went up to the waitress and asked where my soup was. Her response? "I thought you wanted it with the meal!!" I cancelled the soup order as it was too late anyway. Fifteen minutes later, the food comes out. I get a freeking wrap!!! Not tacos, a wrap. Not even close to what I ordred. I sent it back, now starving and about to pass out because they took the rice and beans back. Ten minutes pass and I get my tacos...with fried shrimp. I sent it back again, and my wife has a chat with the manager. They did NOTHING.
Oh, yeah, another time. Another karaoke place across the river in Catawba. Apparently a really good restaurant. Bull.
First, I ask for unsweetened tea with Splenda. Waitress says she'll be back with some. She dumps packets of Sweet N Low, which is only slightly sweeter than nothing at all. Her excuse? "We don't have Splenda".
Okay, so I order the egg rolls and some jambalaya, figuring I can pick around the rice. Twenty minutes later they come out and tell me they don't serve jambalaya, despite it being on the menu. I finally get the food I order and it is disgusting. The food is burnt and the egg roll bland.
I decide a few weeks later to give them another chance. I don't know how I could have forgotten that they don't have Splenda, but they pulled the same bull they did the first time. I get my food and pay for it with a Visa card. They come back with cash AND THE WRONG TICKET!!!!!! I go and ask for my card, but they insist they can't change the bill now, and I have to pay with cash. Never went back, but I did get my Visa back.
One more. My wife is from Gastonia and knew the city of Shelby pretty well. The innkeeper where we were staying recommended a restaurant and said it was his restaurant. The location on the card was closed. We finally found the new location. We were seated and waited thirty minutes with the restaurant half full. One of the waitresses came over and all she did was shrug her shoulders. Finally, we get served, but it is the most agonizingly slow service I ever had, and the food was almost inedible.
And speaking of that Inn, they served carb-laden foods and only a few things I could eat for Saturday breakfast. I ate as much as I could have WHAT I could eat. My wife told the chef that we were diabetic. So the next day, what do we get?? MORE carb-laden food and eggs that were bland and overcooked.
Quote from: hbelkins on October 19, 2017, 04:14:59 PM
Worse roadgeek meet experience I can remember was the cluster at the 2010 Southeast Pennsylvania meet.
Which was our fault (for not nailing down in advance whether we needed separate checks), rather than the restaurant/staff's.
90 minutes to get lunch served to my wife and I at a Denny's in Gainesville, Florida. Was told there wasn't enough staff, but they'd "take care of our order". She kept our drinks filled, so I felt obligated to stay...after all, we had nothing else going on that day. Manager shows up when the food arrives. I explain the excessive wait. "I'm sorry, but I can't give you a discount. Waitstaff can't promise those things."
I pointed the sign which said 2 Hour Maximum Stay (probably to deter cheap students and bums), and said, "you would have thrown us out by now"...any only then agreed charge us half-price. Knowing now, I'd probably just leave after 30-40 minutes.
I've not returned to that Denny's in 20 years.
One big perk to travelling in groups of 3-8 for business lunches/dinners is that we usually get excellent service (I'm guessing it's because travelers on company plastic tip well). Any more than 8 people, and things always get a bit wonky, because someone isn't ready order, is picky, doesn't like anything, is too busy chatting notice their menu...
I cannot recall any intolerable restaurant experiences that have happened to me
personally or my family, but I have heard of a couple of irksome incidents that other people have told me about.
One of my High School teachers that I've had said that one time recently, his wife went to McDonald's to get their whole family some food. One of the things that was ordered was a Big Mac - however, it had not even
one piece of meat on the entire thing, so his wife drove all the way back there to get the correct food and complain of the service.
A friend of mine's family went to a Mexican Restaurant in town when it had first opened about a decade ago, IIRC, and one of his older sisters had a band-aid in her food - I don't think they ever went there ever again.
Quote from: index on October 19, 2017, 10:05:53 AM
I was between nine and eleven years old (I don't know exactly how old I was), when my family decided to use three coupons to get some free frozen yogurt from a strip mall with some coupons we had. There was no fine print on those coupons except for the expiration date.
We go there, and there's nobody working, except for one teenage girl who's sitting there, texting. She doesn't greet us or acknowledge that customers have entered the store she works at. She continues texting. We go dispense our frozen yogurt (it's one of those stores that have all the self-serve yogurt and ice cream stands at the back) and go to give the clerk our coupons.
She immediately yells at us, saying "Only one per visit!". We've done this before, several times with no problem. The store was in some sort of program with the elementary school I was in, where if you do xyz you get this many coupons for free yogurt. We tell her that we've done this before multiple times, so she tells us "walk in and out of the store three times and that's three visits.". Somebody had said that that was ridiculous, so she then threatens us that she's going to call her dad here to "beat us up". She then took our yogurt and wouldn't let us have it.
We decided we had had enough and left. She said she was going to call the police because we were "stealing" and we had to pay for it. We left anyway, and she told us she was banned. Obviously some moody teenage girl who works as a cashier and doesn't know the store policies can't just do that, but we weren't going back anyway. The store closed down less than half a year later due to what were presumably the same issues that we dealt with.
That sounds so infuriating - my blood pressure went up just from reading that! I can't believe you were actually treated that way.
Pfft, that girl said she was gonna "call the police," yet she was the one making physical threats such as "my dad will beat you up" (unless I misinterpreted your post). What an idiot! :thumbdown: :angry:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
For those of you who have serious health issues such as diabetes, there
needs to be more emphasis, in the restaurant industry, on making sure you have the right foods. I can't believe it's actually that bad. :no:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Also, there is one food that I personally absolutely cannot eat, and that is onions. Far too often, tons of onions are put into my food at restaurants, even when I compulsively ask that there be none in it. This happens all the time, and I'm used to it, albeit these incidents are incredibly annoying. I
wish that I liked onions, but unfortunately my taste buds apparently don't agree with that desire of mine, and they never have.
Hmm, let's see.
One time I went to a BBQ place down in Ironton, and as anyone who's been to Ironton knows, it's either that BBQ place or a shitty Mickey D's. Anyways, I sit down and order my food, 30 minutes later I get it (the place only had 5 people total, not including myself and the other person I was with), so why the long wait? Beats me, I thought to myself this food better be damn good if I'm waiting that long for it. Nope, they fucked up a hotdog, how can you fuck up a hotdog?! The fries were awful also, grease crumbs allover the damn plate and fries. Never again.
Another time was at one of those Arby's/Pilot truck stop joints. It was around midnight and I was looking for something to eat because I hadn't had anything since the last 300 miles. I enter the Arby's to find a restaurant that looks similar to a fast food joint in a ghetto. Stains everywhere, the occasional cockroach, red stains that I hope is just melted red tape, etc. I wait in line for about 5 minutes when I go up to the cash register and order my shit. 20 minute wait and there were barely any people in the restaurant/drive thru. I go grab a cup to fill it up with some Dr Pepper and when I press the button on the soft drink machine to get some ice, a cockroach falls out. Fuck that shit. I take my food and leave as quickly as I pulled in.
One time I was eating at a Zaxby's (can't go wrong with Zaxby's), and it was full of people. I sit down and wait for a waiter to show up. Eventually one does show up, and takes my order. 30 minutes later (I can understand the long wait, it was a madhouse in there) my food shows up, and while I'm eating I get clocked in the back of the head by a flying soda cup. My friends who were there with me described my face as a mixture of anger and surprise. I went to find out who was behind the flying soda, and sure enough, a bunch of people from the crowd I like to refer to as 'teenage asswipes'. My friends pulled me back to the table, and without their intervention I probably would've snapped and ripped those asswipe's heads off. As I'm walking back to my truck I find them eyeing down my truck (because who wouldn't eye down a 2005 Silverado?). One of them was reaching into the trunk of their Corolla reaching for something (more than likely something to harm my truck with), and they froze when I hopped in the truck. I flip them the bird while reversing out and drive off.
Oh, and every time I've been to a Red Robin.
Not my worst experience, but so effing annoying:
midafternoon, was running late, had missed lunch and stopped by a sit down restaurant near Village Pointe in Omaha.
Restaurant was near empty, but for some reason, next people to come in where set in the booth adjacent to mine. Kids were standing on the seat behind me, mom and dad oblivious, and the kids start asking me questions and then commenting on why I'm nasty for ignoring them.
Don't need that kind of aggravation, so grabbed my place setting and moved to opposite corner of restaurant, and sat on other side of table to watch annoying family to make sure they did not follow. Waitress at first seemed put out by my effrontery, but when I gave her the stink eye, she decided not to press the issue.
That was only the 2nd time I've left a $0.02 tip.
Quote from: Scott5114 on October 19, 2017, 05:07:44 PM
Quote from: kphoger on October 19, 2017, 04:39:59 PM
Almost all of my bad restaurant experiences have been one-off situations. But McDonald's takes the cake when it comes to don't-give-a-crap attitudes from employees. I'm to the point of not eating at McDonald's unless it's for a meeting.
Well, yeah, fast food is an industry where giving a crap is disincentivized.
Most of the people in fast food are there because they cannot get a "better" job, either because they have a criminal record or because they enjoy marijuana and most companies offering "better" jobs test for that. So you're stuck working for $7.25 an hour. The beauty of that is that all of your employer's competitors also pay $7.25 an hour, so if you get fired, you just go across the street and get a job that's exactly the same, only your uniform color changes.
That, and fast food customers are prone to throwing fits over the most unreasonable stuff (most of the time because they ordered it incorrectly to begin with). So if you're going to be yelled at and paid the same whether or not you do your job right, why would you give a crap?
I managed a Burger King back in 2009 and I'll still occasionally see my former employees working the drive thru at Taco Bell or Sonic.
I didn't say I avoid fast food. Just McDonald's. At other chains, errors seem to be honest mistakes; at McDonald's, I generally get the impression they honestly don't care. At other chains, I've been offered a little something to make up for an inconvenience, but never at McDonald's.
Maybe employees at Burger King don't give a crap either, but their food comes out better than McDonald's, so I guess I just never run into a situation there to notice.
Quote from: ColossalBlocks on October 19, 2017, 10:35:33 PM
One time I was eating at a Zaxby's (can't go wrong with Zaxby's), and it was full of people. I sit down and wait for a waiter to show up. Eventually one does show up, and takes my order.
A waiter at Zaxby's? You mean you don't order at the counter like most other fast-food places?
At Raising Cane's, they do what I find increasingly obnoxious -- they take your name and then call it when your food is ready. What's wrong with just issuing a number on the check/receipt and then calling the number?
The one time I ordered in at Cane's, I told them my name was Dale Earnhardt. :-D
I haven't had such a beyond bad experience myself. But I'm not diabetic or seriously allergic to anything.
Someone in my group had a whole pitcher of beer accidentally spilled over her. Awful, but it really was an accident and they comped her the check for the evening.
I had our order accidentally get lost. I understand that happens, but we were sitting there for an hour before our server went back to the kitchen and got them to find it.
There was a lunch place I used to go to that served really good sandwiches and soups, but their kitchen sometimes got slow at lunchtime. They would put a sign up at the register when the food orders were going to take over 20 minutes. That's about my limit because I have an hour for lunch and it takes about 20 minutes for the round trip. But a few times they forget to put the sign up and that happened once too often so I stopped going there.
The one that sticks out in my mind is the one time I was with a group at a restaurant on Lark St; they brought out menus, and then never came back. Everyone ended up making dinner separately after a couple hours.
When Krystal was in north TX, I tried them once late in their run. I went in one day, not a customer in the place. It took at least *15 minutes* before someone finally showed up at the counter from the back. I don't remember the transaction or the food; I guess I was so shocked at the lack of worker reaction to me being there. Not surprisingly, the location closed a few weeks or months later. It was a Burger King before that and a Carl's afterward. I don't know how long it was a Burger King but as a Carl's, maybe 2 years (?). I don't think there are any more Krystal locations in north TX now.
The only other thing close, is my drive-thru luck with Whataburger. I've dined inside, no issues, but the drive-thru experiences have been a mixed bag (pun intended?). Most of the time when there is a problem it's that they've forgotten something. One time, they made a burger with jalapeños on it. Didn't ask for those, wouldn't in a million years. I can't do anything spicy/hot/peppery/BBQ *at all*. Basically when I came back through, they were practically begging me not to report them. I should have, but I didn't. I'd been up all night at work and I was trying to get home and go to bed. It's weird how I've only had drive-thru issues with Whataburger.
The only exception to that has been recently with the drive-thru at a Wendy's up the street from my place. I have tried 3 different times in recent weeks to order something. It takes them forever to acknowledge me, then I'm interrupted multiple times with 'hold on a second' or 'wait just a minute'. If they weren't ready to take my order, why did they come on the speaker? Then it's either, 'what did ya say?' or say some item I didn't order, when they do come back on. Needless to say, 3 times was not the charm for them. That's the only Wendy's where I've ever had any problem.
Quote from: kphoger on October 20, 2017, 11:09:53 AM
Quote from: Scott5114 on October 19, 2017, 05:07:44 PM
Quote from: kphoger on October 19, 2017, 04:39:59 PM
Almost all of my bad restaurant experiences have been one-off situations. But McDonald's takes the cake when it comes to don't-give-a-crap attitudes from employees. I'm to the point of not eating at McDonald's unless it's for a meeting.
Well, yeah, fast food is an industry where giving a crap is disincentivized.
Most of the people in fast food are there because they cannot get a "better" job, either because they have a criminal record or because they enjoy marijuana and most companies offering "better" jobs test for that. So you're stuck working for $7.25 an hour. The beauty of that is that all of your employer's competitors also pay $7.25 an hour, so if you get fired, you just go across the street and get a job that's exactly the same, only your uniform color changes.
That, and fast food customers are prone to throwing fits over the most unreasonable stuff (most of the time because they ordered it incorrectly to begin with). So if you're going to be yelled at and paid the same whether or not you do your job right, why would you give a crap?
I managed a Burger King back in 2009 and I'll still occasionally see my former employees working the drive thru at Taco Bell or Sonic.
I didn't say I avoid fast food. Just McDonald's. At other chains, errors seem to be honest mistakes; at McDonald's, I generally get the impression they honestly don't care. At other chains, I've been offered a little something to make up for an inconvenience, but never at McDonald's.
Maybe employees at Burger King don't give a crap either, but their food comes out better than McDonald's, so I guess I just never run into a situation there to notice.
McDonalds typically has a much higher sales volume than the other fast food restaurants, so I'm guessing that's a function of the staff getting burned out much quicker than they do at their competitors.
Quote from: txstateends on October 20, 2017, 02:00:09 PM
If they weren't ready to take my order, why did they come on the speaker?
If there's an extended period of silence when you pull up to the speaker, you may assume that the speaker is malfunctioning and pull up to the window, and then you have some people who have ordered at the speaker and others that have ordered at the window, which is a recipe for chaos (
never ever order
anything at the window unless the speaker is malfunctioning). But they may not be ready to take your order because they're trying to collect money from the car at the window or get that car's drinks together. This is a completely normal thing.
Dennys at 2 AM in NJ several years ago. The server ignored me, and at the end of the visit I had to find him to get the check.
Then of course at Winghouse in Orlando, FL ( a knock off of Hooters with girls dressed in tank tops and short stretching shorts with pantyhose) there is one long time bartender there in one area store that is so snobbish as she gives rotten service always to the customers she prefers not to flirt with to make her money, and although I myself personally have not had a major incident with her except when I needed to check out in a hurry it was a problem. Many complained about the said bartender, but being the owner of the chain had a crush on her (not one crush of wanting her for dating type, but an admiration kind) she was untouchable and could not be fired or such.
After my high school graduation, my family and I went to the Red Robin in Tolleson, AZ. As I was eating my burger, I discovered a very long and thick black hair embedded in the patty. I pulled on it and it just kept coming and coming. We got hold of the manager and showed him the hair, and he said it was most likely a horse hair and that it probably got in there at the meat packaging plant somehow. X-( He was reluctant to refund the meal at first, but eventually he took my meal off our check.
A few months ago at a Macaroni Grill in Avondale, our waitress was bringing our food to the table. My whole family was there so she had her arms full. In the process of serving our food, she leaned too far over and the spaghetti that my sister had ordered slid right off the plate and onto the floor, and oh the spectacular SPLAT sound it made. The best part? She just put a chair over the mess and left it there for our entire visit, never once sending anyone out to clean up the mess. The whole thing was hilarious to me; the sound, the mess, and the chair as her solution. I burst out laughing several times during our meal.
One person mentioned cashiers pushing Coke as your drink if you don't specify. This was a McDonald's policy when I worked there, along with if you order nuggets that you will be asked "barbecue sauce with that?" It's called "back to basics" order taking. I'm not sure if its intent is to save a couple seconds on an order or what. I usually ignored it and asked what a person would like to drink.
Denny's in Edmond, OK last year. Had a waitress throw orange on me after I asked for pulp and she brought it out with no pulp. When I complained about it for the second time she threw it on me and said "what if I go home and grind down my gold jewelry, would that be good enough for you?"
If that were a guy we probably would have thrown fists. Since it was a lady, I just yelled "fuck you" and walked out without paying as did my friends.
I wrote to Denny's about it twice and received no response. I will never go to another Denny's anywhere again because of that. I had on an expensive shirt too.
Quote from: pumpkineater2 on October 20, 2017, 07:50:16 PM
As I was eating my burger, I discovered a very long and thick black hair embedded in the patty. I pulled on it and it just kept coming and coming. We got hold of the manager and showed him the hair, and he said it was most likely a horse hair and that it probably got in there at the meat packaging plant somehow.
Oh, dear lord. I get very disgusted and nauseous when I get hair in my mouth, I don't even want to begin to imagine that. That must have been fun. X-(
Quote from: Plutonic Panda on October 21, 2017, 02:42:42 AM
Denny's in Edmond, OK last year. Had a waitress throw orange on me after I asked for pulp and she brought it out with no pulp. When I complained about it for the second time she threw it on me and said "what if I go home and grind down my gold jewelry, would that be good enough for you?"
If that were a guy we probably would have thrown fists. Since it was a lady, I just yelled "fuck you" and walked out without paying as did my friends.
I wrote to Denny's about it twice and received no response. I will never go to another Denny's anywhere again because of that. I had on an expensive shirt too.
That's messed up. Could have charger her with assault. They should at least have paid for your shirt's cleaning.
My worst recent experience was at a combined restaurant and sports bar (https://www.google.com/maps/@38.71604,-90.4457106,20.04z) in Maryland Heights, Missouri. I arrived around 9.30 PM, sat down, and a waitress came by to take my order, without of course having given me so much as a drinks menu. I requested a menu and ice water to start. Then I had a drink and entrée order all ready to go by the next time the waitress swung by, at which point she told me dinner was not available and I was therefore restricted to finger food like buffalo wings. This made me angry, not just because I felt I should have been told up front that the kitchen was closed, but also because when she was pointing out the page of finger-food items that could still be ordered, she was rapping on my table with a lot of noise and vibration.
"I must go. What do I owe you for this water?" I asked. "Nothing, water is free," she said, and only at this point did she seem to realize how close to boiling I was, and started to apologize. I insisted on going, saying that I had come in expectation of a full meal.
In fairness to the restaurant, it was one I had found online, and I think hospitality websites that sit between the provider and the customer, like TripAdvisor, need a better system for indicating kitchen closure when this is separate from the overall closing for the establishment. I also think it should be socially unacceptable at the very least, and possibly also illegal, for drinking establishments that also serve food to try to hold on to foot traffic by hiding the fact of kitchen closure from a walk-in until the point a food order has to be refused.
As it happened, the Denny's across I-270 was able to accommodate with a reasonably filling avocado chicken salad.
Quote from: J N Winkler on October 21, 2017, 02:45:14 PM
I also think it should be socially unacceptable at the very least, and possibly also illegal, for drinking establishments that also serve food to try to hold on to foot traffic by hiding the fact of kitchen closure from a walk-in until the point a food order has to be refused.
The kitchen wasn't closed. They just weren't serving what you wanted.
As far as legality goes, I believe in Delaware that if you're a restaurant that serves alcohol, the kitchen does need to stay open. I don't believe they need to keep everything on their menu available though. In many other states, I've never heard of such a law.
Once a chinese buffet was mad that my family brought in food for my brother who is allergic to peanuts when the boneheaded people working there could not tell that peanut oil is actually peanuts :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:.
Quote from: jeffandnicole on October 21, 2017, 02:47:39 PMThe kitchen wasn't closed. They just weren't serving what you wanted.
I beg to differ. The appetizers they were still willing to serve were all of the kind that can be taken out of a freezer, put on a plate, and reheated in a microwave kept behind the bar. To me that is not an open kitchen in any meaningful sense of the word.
Quote from: jeffandnicole on October 21, 2017, 02:47:39 PMAs far as legality goes, I believe in Delaware that if you're a restaurant that serves alcohol, the kitchen does need to stay open. I don't believe they need to keep everything on their menu available though. In many other states, I've never heard of such a law.
There can be a food sales requirement for some types of drinking establishments. In Kansas, for example, counties have the ability to allow liquor by the drink subject to a food sales requirement (usually 30% of total food sales), though there are counties that are still dry, as well as counties that have abolished food sales requirements.
I didn't actually encounter establishments with separate kitchen closing times until I went to Wisconsin earlier this summer for about a week. There it is typical for a separate kitchen closing time to be posted somewhere on the premises, but not to appear in the establishment's TripAdvisor profile.
Once when I was about 13 or 14, I went to a local Pizza Hut with my grandmother and my aunt. When the Pizza Hut employee was seating us, my grandmother politely said that she'd prefer a different seat, which was a reasonable request. Then the Pizza Hut employee yelled out at the top of her lungs, "FINE!!!!!" She threw a stack of menus down on the table! Then my aunt asked to see the manager. The Pizza Hut worker replied, "I AM the manager!" Then my aunt said, "Well, what a manager!"
Once in the early '90s, my brother and I stopped at a restaurant in a nearby town. I don't even remember what this place was called. I tried ordering chicken, but the waitress refused. She said that their chicken is "froze" and they don't always thaw it, so it wouldn't be available. So why is it on the menu?
Man, I've lucked out, I can't match anything so far in this thread. Closest I had was my wife asking for a second glass of wine (on our anniversary no less) and not only not getting, but the waitress having had the gall to charge for it. She took a solid 20 minutes to fix the bill. That is the first and only time I've been so pissed that I literally blanked her tip.
I do have set rules. 10 minutes with no wait staff at the table equals me out the door. If it starts that bad, it likely isn't getting better.
I've also noted you can tell how well the economy is doing based on service in restaurants. When the economy is going great, it seems service gets cruddier, because the jobs are a little more disposable to the people working them. YMMV.
Quote from: hbelkins on October 20, 2017, 12:02:27 PM
Quote from: ColossalBlocks on October 19, 2017, 10:35:33 PM
One time I was eating at a Zaxby's (can't go wrong with Zaxby's), and it was full of people. I sit down and wait for a waiter to show up. Eventually one does show up, and takes my order.
A waiter at Zaxby's? You mean you don't order at the counter like most other fast-food places?
At Raising Cane's, they do what I find increasingly obnoxious -- they take your name and then call it when your food is ready. What's wrong with just issuing a number on the check/receipt and then calling the number?
The one time I ordered in at Cane's, I told them my name was Dale Earnhardt. :-D
They also ask your name at Arby's and Chic-Fil-A. The former "recalls" your name by the same method of payment on a return visit.
Doesn't really bother me; although numbers give you an idea how long you might wait.
^^^
Stopped at a Taco Bell today to use their restroom and decided to order a snack. They asked for my name, but the printed receipt had an order number. Made no sense to ask for a name when they could just as easily call "Guest 265!" (Or whatever my order number was.)
I think the idea behind names is that it is more personable and friendly than a number. Personally, I don't care one way or the other, but I could see how using names would cause problems–what do you do if you didn't realize there's more than one Brian in the place, or what if someone else took an order for someone named something like "Zxfby" and you have no idea how to pronounce it?
I can see people objecting to being called by name to pick up an order because it seems overfamiliar, or because they just don't feel comfortable with a whole roomful of strangers being able to match a name to a face.
For a deaf person looking to "submarine," it is another piece of information that has to be said out loud that an hearing order-taker is probably not going to understand, with no benefit to the deaf customer, who is going to be standing next to the pickup counter waiting for something to come out that looks like his or her order.
I'd personally just prefer a number that is also displayed on a LED readout at or near the pickup counter and a system of attaching order slips to packaged orders that can be compared to the receipt to double-check you aren't picking up someone else's food.
Quote from: Scott5114 on October 22, 2017, 02:21:56 AM
I think the idea behind names is that it is more personable and friendly than a number. Personally, I don't care one way or the other, but I could see how using names would cause problems–what do you do if you didn't realize there's more than one Brian in the place, or what if someone else took an order for someone named something like "Zxfby" and you have no idea how to pronounce it?
I used to use fake names for silly purposes, but also think that paying with a credit cared that has my name on it and then telling the clerk I'm "Takehashi", "Gerhard", or "Zbigniew" seems a bit shifty, and a time-wasting aggravation to explain the spelling. When I rented in a gated community, we'd tell the guards a fake name because we found they wouldn't randomly ID someone with an uncommon name, but Michael and Jane would.
Probably more fun to try that at Starbucks than the local chicken shack.
I once told Starbucks I was James May. They didn't get it.
Quote from: Takumi on October 22, 2017, 02:51:46 PM
I once told Starbucks I was James May. They didn't get it.
Thanks, Captain Slow!
Quote from: formulanone on October 22, 2017, 10:26:44 AM
Quote from: Scott5114 on October 22, 2017, 02:21:56 AM
I think the idea behind names is that it is more personable and friendly than a number. Personally, I don't care one way or the other, but I could see how using names would cause problems–what do you do if you didn't realize there's more than one Brian in the place, or what if someone else took an order for someone named something like "Zxfby" and you have no idea how to pronounce it?
I used to use fake names for silly purposes, but also think that paying with a credit cared that has my name on it and then telling the clerk I'm "Takehashi", "Gerhard", or "Zbigniew" seems a bit shifty, and a time-wasting aggravation to explain the spelling. When I rented in a gated community, we'd tell the guards a fake name because we found they wouldn't randomly ID someone with an uncommon name, but Michael and Jane would.
Probably more fun to try that at Starbucks than the local chicken shack.
When I go to the Five Guys near my work, I always call ahead. The first time, I told them "Matt" but when I arrived to pick up my order, after telling the cashier my name, he went "Matt is here" and down the kitchen staff line was them screaming out the same thing, which kind of unnerved me a bit. Nowadays, I'll use either the name "Doc" or "Norm" to see if anyone gets old-timey TV references (Johnny Carson Tonight Show and Cheers, respectively). Much to my surprise, the 20-somethings working the staff do not get them.
To the original topic, one instance of bad service I remember (though I can't specifically remember why it was bad) was a 2004 visit to an Applebees. My mom is a big complainer at restaurants if they forget to bring you ketchup and other minute things. It was more notable for my dad (at the time an avid Jeopardy watcher) and me (as a game show fan) since the night we were there was the night Ken Jennings lost.
Quote from: bandit957 on October 21, 2017, 06:28:33 PM
Once when I was about 13 or 14, I went to a local Pizza Hut with my grandmother and my aunt. When the Pizza Hut employee was seating us, my grandmother politely said that she'd prefer a different seat, which was a reasonable request. Then the Pizza Hut employee yelled out at the top of her lungs, "FINE!!!!!" She threw a stack of menus down on the table! Then my aunt asked to see the manager. The Pizza Hut worker replied, "I AM the manager!" Then my aunt said, "Well, what a manager!"
Once in the early '90s, my brother and I stopped at a restaurant in a nearby town. I don't even remember what this place was called. I tried ordering chicken, but the waitress refused. She said that their chicken is "froze" and they don't always thaw it, so it wouldn't be available. So why is it on the menu?
Do you know what time it was at the pizza hut?
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 22, 2017, 06:06:09 PMDo you know what time it was at the pizza hut?
It was around lunch, probably during summer vacation.
It seems whenever I order at a fast food drive thru I get the food thats been under the heat lamp the longest, I guess I should check the food b4 I drive away but I dont. I never had this happen when I order inside but "to go". To be sure I get fresh food when I initially order inside I say its to eat "here", then as their putting it on the tray I say "change of plans pls put that in a to go bag, I prefer to eat in the car anyway.
And why do people sit in a drive thru line that has a dozen or more cars ahead of them?? I can go inside, get my food & walk out the door & the line only advanced a couple cars....lazy people!!!
Quote from: allniter89 on October 23, 2017, 12:00:08 AM
It seems whenever I order at a fast food drive thru I get the food thats been under the heat lamp the longest, I guess I should check the food b4 I drive away but I dont. I never had this happen when I order inside but "to go". To be sure I get fresh food when I initially order inside I say its to eat "here", then as their putting it on the tray I say "change of plans pls put that in a to go bag, I prefer to eat in the car anyway.
At least where I worked, if an order was placed for here, to go, or drive-thru made no difference as to the freshness of the food. It was done more or less in sequential order by order number. The fresh food would go to whoever happened to have the next order up after we ran out of the previous batch.
The heating unit did feature timers that indicated when a batch of product was theoretically supposed to be thrown away, but they were not always reset when they were supposed to be, and batches sometimes co-mingled, so sometimes stuff didn't get thrown away when it probably should have been. (It should be noted that since the heating unit kept food warm enough to keep it out of the temperature danger zone–which, as a shift manager, I was responsible for measuring and logging–this was a question of food quality, and not food safety.) In any case, we often found ourselves stretching food past the timer since customers were more likely to complain of wait times than freshness.
Some restaurants pre-build a number of sandwiches with the standard toppings, so that if someone orders a Whopper with cheese or whatever there's one ready to toss in the bag. (The restaurant where I worked was rarely busy enough to justify this.) If this system is in place, it can easily be worked around by ordering a sandwich with one condiment removed or added, although you will of course have a longer wait as a new sandwich has to be made.
Some people would ensure that they would get fresh fries by asking for fries with no salt. Sure enough, we always had to make fresh fries for them, but it was generally considered to be a dick move because we had to throw away or set aside the existing, salted fries and be sure to keep that one person's order sequestered from the salted fries, which is more difficult to do than you'd think due to the kitchen not being set up for such a thing. So if getting fresh food is more important to you than not looking like a dick to the staff, then I guess that's an option one could explore.
In general, one should remember that "fresh" and "fast" are often opposite sides of a continuum. The only exception is when the place is busy enough that everything is going out the door fast enough that it doesn't have time to get stale, and when that's the case you're likely to run into a bottleneck where order volume overwhelms the ability of the humans behind the counter to physically take the orders or produce the food.
Quote from: Mr. Matté on October 22, 2017, 03:07:02 PM
Nowadays, I'll use either the name "Doc" or "Norm" to see if anyone gets old-timey TV references (Johnny Carson Tonight Show and Cheers, respectively). Much to my surprise, the 20-somethings working the staff do not get them.
I'm not sure what they're supposed to do, even if they do get it. Do you expect them to reference the shows or something? Besides...I work with a Norm, and Doc is a kinda-normal nick-name for, well, doctors.
Quote from: bandit957 on October 22, 2017, 07:21:43 PM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 22, 2017, 06:06:09 PMDo you know what time it was at the pizza hut?
It was around lunch, probably during summer vacation.
It was not even late at night? What a dick.
Quote from: Takumi on October 22, 2017, 02:51:46 PM
I once told Starbucks I was James May. They didn’t get it.
Back in the days when Radio Shack would insist on asking for your name for even the most minor purchase (like a package of 480 ohm resistors), I used to tell the clerk I was Arlo Guthrie. Was never questioned, but I wish I'd saved some of those receipts.
Quote from: formulanone on October 22, 2017, 10:26:44 AM
I used to use fake names for silly purposes, but also think that paying with a credit cared that has my name on it and then telling the clerk I'm "Takehashi", "Gerhard", or "Zbigniew" seems a bit shifty, and a time-wasting aggravation to explain the spelling. When I rented in a gated community, we'd tell the guards a fake name because we found they wouldn't randomly ID someone with an uncommon name, but Michael and Jane would.
One of the tour stops at the recent Columbus meet was the flagship Wendy's. They have the ordering kiosks where you place your order and swipe your card for payment. The name on your card shows up at a screen at the pickup spot. While I doubt anyone looks at the name on your card when you pay for your order at a staffed register (especially since you have most likely swiped the card yourself at a terminal that faces you, if a signature or PIN are required), transferring the name on the card to a pickup window eliminates your ability to tell them your name.
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 22, 2017, 06:06:09 PM
Do you know what time it was at the pizza hut?
Does anybody really know what time it is at Pizza Hut?
Does anybody really care?
If so I can't imagine why
We've all got time enough to cry
Quote from: hbelkins on October 23, 2017, 02:14:19 PM
Quote from: formulanone on October 22, 2017, 10:26:44 AM
I used to use fake names for silly purposes, but also think that paying with a credit cared that has my name on it and then telling the clerk I'm "Takehashi", "Gerhard", or "Zbigniew" seems a bit shifty, and a time-wasting aggravation to explain the spelling. When I rented in a gated community, we'd tell the guards a fake name because we found they wouldn't randomly ID someone with an uncommon name, but Michael and Jane would.
One of the tour stops at the recent Columbus meet was the flagship Wendy's. They have the ordering kiosks where you place your order and swipe your card for payment. The name on your card shows up at a screen at the pickup spot. While I doubt anyone looks at the name on your card when you pay for your order at a staffed register (especially since you have most likely swiped the card yourself at a terminal that faces you, if a signature or PIN are required), transferring the name on the card to a pickup window eliminates your ability to tell them your name.
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 22, 2017, 06:06:09 PM
Do you know what time it was at the pizza hut?
Does anybody really know what time it is at Pizza Hut?
Does anybody really care?
If so I can't imagine why
We've all got time enough to cry
[/quote] Did you just write a poem?
^^ You're likely too young to know this song:
Quote from: Scott5114 on October 23, 2017, 06:36:52 AM
Some people would ensure that they would get fresh fries by asking for fries with no salt. Sure enough, we always had to make fresh fries for them, but it was generally considered to be a dick move because we had to throw away or set aside the existing, salted fries and be sure to keep that one person's order sequestered from the salted fries, which is more difficult to do than you'd think due to the kitchen not being set up for such a thing. So if getting fresh food is more important to you than not looking like a dick to the staff, then I guess that's an option one could explore.
My boss and his wife (who is also a coworker) simply don't like salt on their fries, so this is how they order them anyway. They worked in restaurants together for years before starting in this industry, so they're certainly not naive to the ways of the kitchen.
Quote from: kphoger on October 23, 2017, 03:30:41 PM
Quote from: Scott5114 on October 23, 2017, 06:36:52 AM
Some people would ensure that they would get fresh fries by asking for fries with no salt. Sure enough, we always had to make fresh fries for them, but it was generally considered to be a dick move because we had to throw away or set aside the existing, salted fries and be sure to keep that one person's order sequestered from the salted fries, which is more difficult to do than you'd think due to the kitchen not being set up for such a thing. So if getting fresh food is more important to you than not looking like a dick to the staff, then I guess that's an option one could explore.
My boss and his wife (who is also a coworker) simply don't like salt on their fries, so this is how they order them anyway. They worked in restaurants together for years before starting in this industry, so they're certainly not naive to the ways of the kitchen.
Fries without salt are weirdly shaped potatoes.
I lowered my salt intake as recommended by my doctor, for blood pressure. Fries with salt added now taste overwhelming, like eating a salt lick. Fries are potatoes and should taste like a small crunchy baked potato.
Quote from: kkt on October 23, 2017, 05:09:29 PM
I lowered my salt intake as recommended by my doctor, for blood pressure. Fries with salt added now taste overwhelming, like eating a salt lick. Fries are potatoes and should taste like a small crunchy baked potato.
Try dipping them in ketchup.
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 23, 2017, 05:10:46 PM
Quote from: kkt on October 23, 2017, 05:09:29 PM
I lowered my salt intake as recommended by my doctor, for blood pressure. Fries with salt added now taste overwhelming, like eating a salt lick. Fries are potatoes and should taste like a small crunchy baked potato.
Try dipping them in ketchup.
Then they taste like vinegar and sugar with too much salt.
Quote from: kkt on October 23, 2017, 05:18:25 PM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 23, 2017, 05:10:46 PM
Quote from: kkt on October 23, 2017, 05:09:29 PM
I lowered my salt intake as recommended by my doctor, for blood pressure. Fries with salt added now taste overwhelming, like eating a salt lick. Fries are potatoes and should taste like a small crunchy baked potato.
Try dipping them in ketchup.
Then they taste like vinegar and sugar with too much salt.
Mustard?
Mustard has its own strong flavor. A little like vinegar, not at all like sugar or salt.
Quote from: kkt on October 23, 2017, 05:25:43 PM
Mustard has its own strong flavor. A little like vinegar, not at all like sugar or salt.
You like your food bland right?
Not at all. Just not overwhelmingly salty.
Quote from: kkt on October 23, 2017, 05:29:43 PM
Not at all. Just not overwhelmingly salty.
Some fries, like 5 guys ones are not as salty as others.
Quote from: Scott5114 on October 23, 2017, 06:36:52 AM
Some people would ensure that they would get fresh fries by asking for fries with no salt. Sure enough, we always had to make fresh fries for them, but it was generally considered to be a dick move because we had to throw away or set aside the existing, salted fries and be sure to keep that one person's order sequestered from the salted fries, which is more difficult to do than you'd think due to the kitchen not being set up for such a thing. So if getting fresh food is more important to you than not looking like a dick to the staff, then I guess that's an option one could explore.
To echo what others, have said, some people are under medical orders to reduce their salt intake. In general, run-of-the-mill fries come two ways -- saltier than a salt block like you'd set out for livestock, or no salt whatsoever. And it's not consistent even at the same restaurant. For instance, you can go to the McDonald's or Wendy's in the town where I work one day, and get very salty fries one day, and then go the next day and get fries with no salt whatsoever.
I'm generally someone who will put salt on something I haven't even tasted yet, but I've been told I need to cut down on salt because of my blood pressure. Yet I don't order fries with no salt, but there may be people who do for medical reasons. The kitchen staff needs to take dietary considerations into account instead of automatically assuming someone wants to be a jerk.
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 23, 2017, 05:10:46 PM
Quote from: kkt on October 23, 2017, 05:09:29 PM
I lowered my salt intake as recommended by my doctor, for blood pressure. Fries with salt added now taste overwhelming, like eating a salt lick. Fries are potatoes and should taste like a small crunchy baked potato.
Try dipping them in ketchup.
And how, exactly, does dipping something in ketchup reduce the salt content of what's being dipped? His doctor said to eat less salt, and you're suggesting he instead take salty food and just cover up the taste. Trolling, or idiocy?
Quote from: kkt on October 23, 2017, 05:09:29 PM
I lowered my salt intake as recommended by my doctor, for blood pressure. Fries with salt added now taste overwhelming, like eating a salt lick. Fries are potatoes and should taste like a small crunchy baked potato.
Much agreed. Far too many place use way, way too much salt. If I wanted a salt lick, I'd have ordered a salt lick.
Quote from: kphoger on October 24, 2017, 01:38:47 PM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 23, 2017, 05:10:46 PM
Quote from: kkt on October 23, 2017, 05:09:29 PM
I lowered my salt intake as recommended by my doctor, for blood pressure. Fries with salt added now taste overwhelming, like eating a salt lick. Fries are potatoes and should taste like a small crunchy baked potato.
Try dipping them in ketchup.
And how, exactly, does dipping something in ketchup reduce the salt content of what's being dipped? His doctor said to eat less salt, and you're suggesting he instead take salty food and just cover up the taste. Trolling, or idiocy?
idiocy. I legit did not think about the saltiness of ketchup.
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 24, 2017, 02:25:45 PM
Quote from: kphoger on October 24, 2017, 01:38:47 PM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 23, 2017, 05:10:46 PM
Quote from: kkt on October 23, 2017, 05:09:29 PM
I lowered my salt intake as recommended by my doctor, for blood pressure. Fries with salt added now taste overwhelming, like eating a salt lick. Fries are potatoes and should taste like a small crunchy baked potato.
Try dipping them in ketchup.
And how, exactly, does dipping something in ketchup reduce the salt content of what's being dipped? His doctor said to eat less salt, and you're suggesting he instead take salty food and just cover up the taste. Trolling, or idiocy?
idiocy. I legit did not think about the saltiness of ketchup.
That entirely not the point of what I was saying. The french fry you're dipping has the same amount of salt on it, whether you dip it in ketchup or not. Dipping it in ketchup is no substitute for ordering fries without salt on them to begin with.
It's like telling someone who's allergic to peanuts to dip their Snickers bar in ketchup.
Quote from: kphoger on October 24, 2017, 02:55:22 PM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 24, 2017, 02:25:45 PM
Quote from: kphoger on October 24, 2017, 01:38:47 PM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 23, 2017, 05:10:46 PM
Quote from: kkt on October 23, 2017, 05:09:29 PM
I lowered my salt intake as recommended by my doctor, for blood pressure. Fries with salt added now taste overwhelming, like eating a salt lick. Fries are potatoes and should taste like a small crunchy baked potato.
Try dipping them in ketchup.
And how, exactly, does dipping something in ketchup reduce the salt content of what's being dipped? His doctor said to eat less salt, and you're suggesting he instead take salty food and just cover up the taste. Trolling, or idiocy?
idiocy. I legit did not think about the saltiness of ketchup.
That entirely not the point of what I was saying. The french fry you're dipping has the same amount of salt on it, whether you dip it in ketchup or not. Dipping it in ketchup is no substitute for ordering fries without salt on them to begin with.
It's like telling someone who's allergic to peanuts to dip their Snickers bar in ketchup.
I often find that enough ketchup drowns out the taste. But I am looking like a complete fool right now so I will stop.
My mom got mad because a clerk at a department store chewed bubble gum.
Quote from: bandit957 on October 24, 2017, 04:51:39 PM
My mom got mad because a clerk at a department store chewed bubble gum.
Probably wasn't roads scholaring at the time...
Quote from: bandit957 on October 24, 2017, 04:51:39 PM
My mom got mad because a clerk at a department store chewed bubble gum.
Why?
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 24, 2017, 05:10:43 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on October 24, 2017, 04:51:39 PM
My mom got mad because a clerk at a department store chewed bubble gum.
Why?
I asked my mom about it recently, and she said it was "probably because she was blowing bubbles in my face." The incident happened around 1988.
Quote from: bandit957 on October 24, 2017, 05:39:01 PM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 24, 2017, 05:10:43 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on October 24, 2017, 04:51:39 PM
My mom got mad because a clerk at a department store chewed bubble gum.
Why?
I asked my mom about it recently, and she said it was "probably because she was blowing bubbles in my face." The incident happened around 1988.
Why were you at the store with your mom at age 16? I usually stay home when my mom goes out.
Quote from: hbelkins on October 24, 2017, 10:31:31 AM
The kitchen staff needs to take dietary considerations into account instead of automatically assuming someone wants to be a jerk.
It was rare that it happened in the first place, but the person ordering it would usually request salt packets at the window, so we knew what was really going on.
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 24, 2017, 05:41:13 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on October 24, 2017, 05:39:01 PM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 24, 2017, 05:10:43 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on October 24, 2017, 04:51:39 PM
My mom got mad because a clerk at a department store chewed bubble gum.
Why?
I asked my mom about it recently, and she said it was "probably because she was blowing bubbles in my face." The incident happened around 1988.
Why were you at the store with your mom at age 16? I usually stay home when my mom goes out.
Oh my God, who the hell cares?
Quote from: 21stCenturyRoad on October 24, 2017, 05:59:13 PM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 24, 2017, 05:41:13 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on October 24, 2017, 05:39:01 PM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 24, 2017, 05:10:43 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on October 24, 2017, 04:51:39 PM
My mom got mad because a clerk at a department store chewed bubble gum.
Why?
I asked my mom about it recently, and she said it was "probably because she was blowing bubbles in my face." The incident happened around 1988.
Why were you at the store with your mom at age 16? I usually stay home when my mom goes out.
Oh my God, who the hell cares?
Not to mention that it's actually normal for families to go places together. Seriously...
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 24, 2017, 05:41:13 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on October 24, 2017, 05:39:01 PM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 24, 2017, 05:10:43 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on October 24, 2017, 04:51:39 PM
My mom got mad because a clerk at a department store chewed bubble gum.
Why?
I asked my mom about it recently, and she said it was "probably because she was blowing bubbles in my face." The incident happened around 1988.
Why were you at the store with your mom at age 16? I usually stay home when my mom goes out.
Well aren't you the cool one around here...
Red Robin, many years ago. Table of two received their order before I received mine even though I had been there before them AND got my order wrong. Management wouldn't do anything, so I contacted corporate HQ. I was told the store manager would be in touch. Six weeks later, still no contact so I wrote back and basically told them to go screw themselves.
I've not stopped at a Red Robin since that time.
Quote from: US71 on October 24, 2017, 07:05:47 PM
Red Robin, many years ago. Table of two received their order before I received mine even though I had been there before them AND got my order wrong. Management wouldn't do anything, so I contacted corporate HQ. I was told the store manager would be in touch. Six weeks later, still no contact so I wrote back and basically told them to go screw themselves.
I've not stopped at a Red Robin since that time.
At a restaurant I went to the server dropped my dad's steak and he got a free meal.
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 24, 2017, 05:41:13 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on October 24, 2017, 05:39:01 PM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 24, 2017, 05:10:43 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on October 24, 2017, 04:51:39 PM
My mom got mad because a clerk at a department store chewed bubble gum.
Why?
I asked my mom about it recently, and she said it was "probably because she was blowing bubbles in my face." The incident happened around 1988.
Why were you at the store with your mom at age 16? I usually stay home when my mom goes out.
I wasn't with her, but I remember her talking about it.
Quote from: webny99 on October 24, 2017, 09:13:09 PM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 24, 2017, 05:41:13 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on October 24, 2017, 05:39:01 PM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 24, 2017, 05:10:43 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on October 24, 2017, 04:51:39 PM
My mom got mad because a clerk at a department store chewed bubble gum.
Why?
I asked my mom about it recently, and she said it was "probably because she was blowing bubbles in my face." The incident happened around 1988.
Why were you at the store with your mom at age 16? I usually stay home when my mom goes out.
See those quotation marks? That means his mom, not him, was the one with bubbles in her face. He had to ask her about it too, so he probably wasn't even there.
Anyways, that was a ridiculous question. We're talking about 30 years ago :-D Who cares if he was there or not?
sorry for my extreme stupidity.
We probably all have had bad experiences with restaurants getting orders wrong. One thing I've found is that it pays to complain, and the best way to do that is to fill out the surveys that are promoted on your receipts.
One local fast-food place was terrible about getting orders wrong. I finally filled out the survey and complained. A couple of apologetic emails followed, along with a request for my mailing address so they could send some coupons as an apology.
Sheetz has also gotten my order wrong a couple of times in recent months. The first time, I went online and filled out their "contact us" form and ended up with free credits on my Sheetz card. This last time, not only did I do that, but I filled out the survey listed on my receipt. I got double the free credits by doing that.
Applebees' is really bad some days, we don't go there very often anymore. Terrible service...
Applebee's is bad, period.
I have heard often enough that I believe it to be true that Applebee's just microwaves frozen food that's cooked elsewhere and shipped to them. That's fine for fast-food prices but for a full-service casual restaurant I'm paying for actual cooking.
If something goes wrong at a restaurant, the best way to handle it is to contact the manager on duty (usually a shift or assistant manager) and calmly relay what is wrong. Most often, you'll get an offer to replace the food and/or comp your next order. If you're not satisfied with what the MOD offers, then the next step is to find out how to get in touch with the store or general manager. GMs are usually pretty busy and don't appreciate their AMs being unable to handle it, are most likely the ones to get shit if it goes any further, and generally have enough authority to be able to resolve most situations. If you need to proceed beyond this, either the district manager or corporate is the next step, and both are likely to rain enough shit down on the restaurant that hopefully the issue will be permanently corrected.
If you find that a place is just hopelessly unable to get things correct, it's probably best to stop going there for a while in the hopes that decreased revenue will get their attention.
Quote from: allniter89 on October 23, 2017, 12:00:08 AM
And why do people sit in a drive thru line that has a dozen or more cars ahead of them?? I can go inside, get my food & walk out the door & the line only advanced a couple cars....lazy people!!!
It depends on the chain. Since many fast food places actively clock drive thru speeds as a top priority, they may push your front counter order off to the side to get a few more cars out of the drive thru before making your order.
Quote from: TheHighwayMan394 on October 26, 2017, 01:23:35 AM
Quote from: allniter89 on October 23, 2017, 12:00:08 AM
And why do people sit in a drive thru line that has a dozen or more cars ahead of them?? I can go inside, get my food & walk out the door & the line only advanced a couple cars....lazy people!!!
It depends on the chain. Since many fast food places actively clock drive thru speeds as a top priority, they may push your front counter order off to the side to get a few more cars out of the drive thru before making your order.
Of course, the reverse is also true. If the person at the window is waiting for one special-cooked item (like an infrequently-cooked fish or chicken sandwich) the drive thru will back up while the front counter is still slamming out orders, since there's nothing physically blocking them from the other customers.
I'm not a huge fan of Applebee's. All of those places seem severely overpriced for what you get. If I had to pick a favorite fast-casual place, it would probably be Chili's, because I like their chicken strips (the dinner comes with fries and corn on the cob).
I like O'Charley's better than Applebee's, and have never been to a Ruby Tuesday's, so I don't have a lot of experience with the genre, other than to know that I'm not impressed with Applebee's.
A friend of a friend worked at Olive Garden. Most of their meals were frozen and essentially warmed up there. I have no idea why people are enamored with the place.
Quote from: Rothman on October 26, 2017, 11:54:23 AM
A friend of a friend worked at Olive Garden. Most of their meals were frozen and essentially warmed up there. I have no idea why people are enamored with the place.
I have never heard someone say that they like olive garden.
The only good time to go to Olive Garden is when they have the unlimited pasta.
Once apple bee's messed up my families orders. No one in my family wants to go there anymore.
Quote from: TheHighwayMan394 on October 26, 2017, 01:23:35 AM
Quote from: allniter89 on October 23, 2017, 12:00:08 AM
And why do people sit in a drive thru line that has a dozen or more cars ahead of them?? I can go inside, get my food & walk out the door & the line only advanced a couple cars....lazy people!!!
It depends on the chain. Since many fast food places actively clock drive thru speeds as a top priority, they may push your front counter order off to the side to get a few more cars out of the drive thru before making your order.
Hardee's/Carl's Jr. seems to give that kind of priority to drive-through customers, to the point of making service painfully slow for walk-ins. So when I go there (only for breakfast, sometimes), I use the drive-through unless I need to use the restroom.
McD's does better at serving walk-in customers. But I usually do the drive-through with them as well, unless there is a long drive-through line.
Quote from: oscar on October 26, 2017, 09:43:56 PM
Quote from: TheHighwayMan394 on October 26, 2017, 01:23:35 AM
Quote from: allniter89 on October 23, 2017, 12:00:08 AM
And why do people sit in a drive thru line that has a dozen or more cars ahead of them?? I can go inside, get my food & walk out the door & the line only advanced a couple cars....lazy people!!!
It depends on the chain. Since many fast food places actively clock drive thru speeds as a top priority, they may push your front counter order off to the side to get a few more cars out of the drive thru before making your order.
Hardee's/Carl's Jr. seems to give that kind of priority to drive-through customers, to the point of making service painfully slow for walk-ins. So when I go there (only for breakfast, sometimes), I use the drive-through unless I need to use the restroom.
McD's does better at serving walk-in customers. But I usually do the drive-through with them as well, unless there is a long drive-through line.
I also find drive thru quicker. Also I don't have to drive my lazy ass out of the car if I use drive thru.
Quote from: oscar on October 26, 2017, 09:43:56 PM
Quote from: TheHighwayMan394 on October 26, 2017, 01:23:35 AM
Quote from: allniter89 on October 23, 2017, 12:00:08 AM
And why do people sit in a drive thru line that has a dozen or more cars ahead of them?? I can go inside, get my food & walk out the door & the line only advanced a couple cars....lazy people!!!
It depends on the chain. Since many fast food places actively clock drive thru speeds as a top priority, they may push your front counter order off to the side to get a few more cars out of the drive thru before making your order.
Hardee's/Carl's Jr. seems to give that kind of priority to drive-through customers, to the point of making service painfully slow for walk-ins. So when I go there (only for breakfast, sometimes), I use the drive-through unless I need to use the restroom.
McD's does better at serving walk-in customers. But I usually do the drive-through with them as well, unless there is a long drive-through line.
I have noticed the drive-thru preference at several places (McD's included) but Subway probably tops that list in my experience.
Back in 2006, my dad, two brothers and I were trying out this new seafood place in our neck of the woods north of Baltimore. They were like "you food will be out right away" and it took almost an hour, and it was pretty bland.
I don't exactly like Olive Garden and haven't been there in years. However, there have been times when it was the best of a bad set of options.
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 26, 2017, 08:24:46 PM
Quote from: Rothman on October 26, 2017, 11:54:23 AM
A friend of a friend worked at Olive Garden. Most of their meals were frozen and essentially warmed up there. I have no idea why people are enamored with the place.
I have never heard someone say that they like olive garden.
Before reading this thread, I had never heard someone say they
didn't like Olive Garden. My family and I sure do.
I'm OK with Olive Garden as a "safe" Italian food option. But I would never go there in a place with abundant non-chain Italian food options, except to accommodate someone who isn't into Italian as much as I am.
I have eaten at Olive Garden and have no real complaints about the food, though it is quite salty. I have never known it not to be mobbed on Friday and Saturday nights, and suspect it is favored by value-conscious families because of the all-you-can-eat salad. For that matter, I have also eaten at Applebee's without complaint. This said, for me a few sit-down chains have failed to impress: On the Border, TGI Friday's, and Granite City Brewery.
Quote from: kphoger on October 27, 2017, 11:55:33 AM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 26, 2017, 08:24:46 PM
Quote from: Rothman on October 26, 2017, 11:54:23 AM
A friend of a friend worked at Olive Garden. Most of their meals were frozen and essentially warmed up there. I have no idea why people are enamored with the place.
I have never heard someone say that they like olive garden.
Before reading this thread, I had never heard someone say they didn't like Olive Garden. My family and I sure do.
I find that the case for people who haven't had real Italian food. My SIL, who grew up in the food desert of Utah, loves the place.
If you have never had what's good, McDonald's might as well be the Four Seasons. :D
I think the hatred of Olive Garden has relatively little to do with the food or service–and much more to do with the chain being a symbol of Middle America.
Quote from: J N Winkler on October 27, 2017, 12:25:01 PM
I have never known it not to be mobbed on Friday and Saturday nights
My favorite people-watching is at the Olive Garden waiting area during prom. Big poofy dresses, and guys who've never worn a suit before.
Quote from: Rothman on October 27, 2017, 12:25:30 PM
Quote from: kphoger on October 27, 2017, 11:55:33 AM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 26, 2017, 08:24:46 PM
Quote from: Rothman on October 26, 2017, 11:54:23 AM
A friend of a friend worked at Olive Garden. Most of their meals were frozen and essentially warmed up there. I have no idea why people are enamored with the place.
I have never heard someone say that they like olive garden.
Before reading this thread, I had never heard someone say they didn't like Olive Garden. My family and I sure do.
I find that the case for people who haven't had real Italian food. My SIL, who grew up in the food desert of Utah, loves the place.
If you have never had what's good, McDonald's might as well be the Four Seasons. :D
I've been to Italy, although it was only for part of a day, as a side-trip to Venice from Austria. It's not a matter of not having had authentic Italian food or not knowing what's good. Some of Olive Garden's items are more authentic than others, and I honestly like their food.
Kind of like how I've spent a lot of time in Mexico and am very familiar with authentic Mexican food, but I still enjoy getting a chalupa from Taco Bell.
I always figured you could take a dish from a chain restaurant, put it next to a dish from a local restaurant, and most people wouldn't tell the difference.
Where's that story of a local store that was serving fried chicken, and everyone was fond of it. Until, one day, someone happened to see an employee walk into the back of the store with containers of Popeye's Fried Chicken, and realized he were being served reheated chain-restaurant chicken.
I just remembered...
Back in March 2010, my wife and son and I were leading a short-term mission trip to southern Coahuila, and we stopped to eat at Subway just past the checkpoint south of Nuevo Laredo. (Google Maps says it's permanently closed now, so here is a link (https://goo.gl/maps/nF2fyDRHxq72) to the Church's Chicken in the same building.) After we all decided what we wanted to order, the staff informed us they were out of bread for the day. Out of bread. At 11:15 AM. At Subway. Uhhhh.... Why even stay open? We ordered from Church's Chicken instead.
Quote from: webny99 on October 26, 2017, 08:29:57 PM
I've never been to Olive Garden.
If I'm going to eat out, it will be one of two types of places 1] fast food 2] local joint or chain with "proper" food.
I think fast casual places (Applebee's, Denny's, Chili's, etc.) are overrated and overpriced. The two that are worth it in my experience are Friendly's and Chipotle. Both high-priced, but actually good food and fast(ish) service.
This is the first time I have ever heard someone refer to Friendly's as fast(ish) service. I've always found them to be painfully slow.
I was told there was a restaurant in Chicago where the selling point was that the servers would make fun of customers' physical features right to their face.
When I went to Chicago in 1997, we stopped by a restaurant to use the restroom, and the waitress kept making a big issue about how "it's where you pee!" But I don't think this was the same restaurant that made fun of people.
I was also told there was a restaurant in Tampa where the servers would smash pies in customers' faces at random.
Around here, back around 1984, there used to be a restaurant called the Ground Round that would switch the signs on the men's and women's restrooms as a joke.
Quote from: bandit957 on October 27, 2017, 05:42:42 PM
I was told there was a restaurant in Chicago where the selling point was that the servers would make fun of customers' physical features right to their face.
Sounds like Ed Debevic's, probably.
Quote from: hbelkins on October 26, 2017, 11:23:43 AM
I'm not a huge fan of Applebee's. All of those places seem severely overpriced for what you get. If I had to pick a favorite fast-casual place, it would probably be Chili's, because I like their chicken strips (the dinner comes with fries and corn on the cob).
Maybe not any more. From the "Chili's is back, baby" radio commercials, "We focus on one thing - ribs, burgers and fajitas."
Um, isn't that 3 things?
I have a really hard time with places that include a big plate of fries along with your burger or sandwich. I don't like food getting wasted, but things like fries are hard on my gallbladder and heartburn. I had a major gallbladder infection 6 years ago.
Quote from: kphoger on October 27, 2017, 12:42:45 PMMy favorite people-watching is at the Olive Garden waiting area during prom. Big poofy dresses, and guys who've never worn a suit before.
Is this the east-side Olive Garden? (Stylized observation: east Wichita = Urras; west Wichita = Anarres.)
Quote from: oscar on October 27, 2017, 12:22:00 PM
I'm OK with Olive Garden as a "safe" Italian food option. But I would never go there in a place with abundant non-chain Italian food options, except to accommodate someone who isn't into Italian as much as I am.
My safe Italian food restaurant is bertuccis. 10 year old brother's favorite restaurant. I like my food simple.
Nearly 20 years ago I contracted the 'bad' E coli from an undercooked hamburger at a since closed restaurant in the Omaha/Council Bluffs area.
I was quite ill, and didn't realize just how severe it was till it was nearly over. I peed and pooped wrong/unusual colors and even had trouble walking for a couple days.
Quote from: J N Winkler on October 27, 2017, 09:11:07 PM
Quote from: kphoger on October 27, 2017, 12:42:45 PMMy favorite people-watching is at the Olive Garden waiting area during prom. Big poofy dresses, and guys who've never worn a suit before.
Is this the east-side Olive Garden? (Stylized observation: east Wichita = Urras; west Wichita = Anarres.)
That the parenthetical could practically be in a foreign language to me underscores the fact that I know embarrassingly little about the next large city to the north of me.
I wish I had more detailed knowledge of Oklahoma City myself.
The Anarres/Urras reference pertains to twin planets in Ursula LeGuin's The Dispossessed. To oversimplify greatly, Anarres is a socialist paradise where private property is frowned on and individuals are expected to seek satisfaction working for the greater good, while Urras embraces the private-property concept and has immense income inequality, to the extent that the rich walk around nearly naked with jewelry embedded in their skin while great masses of people have nothing.
As applied to Wichita, likening the east part of town to Urras is a way of pointing out that it is the side of town traditionally favored by millionaires but also has great poverty, including the bulk of the city's Section 8 housing. However, an open secret is that Wichita also has a north-south divide, with both the southwest and southeast having lots of people with roots in the upland South whose families originally arrived in the 1940's and 1950's to work in the aircraft plants at a time when the city was experiencing its fastest population growth in the twentieth century.
As for restaurants that deliberately inflict a bad experience as part of their shtick, Dirty Helens in Milwaukee was probably the standard by which all others are measured.
Only got there a couple of times, but it was great fun, even if I was called a CHEAP FUCKER on my way out for failing to leave a 50-100% tip.
:-D
Quote from: GaryV on October 27, 2017, 06:31:21 PM
Quote from: hbelkins on October 26, 2017, 11:23:43 AM
I'm not a huge fan of Applebee's. All of those places seem severely overpriced for what you get. If I had to pick a favorite fast-casual place, it would probably be Chili's, because I like their chicken strips (the dinner comes with fries and corn on the cob).
Maybe not any more. From the "Chili's is back, baby" radio commercials, "We focus on one thing - ribs, burgers and fajitas."
Um, isn't that 3 things?
Last time I had Chili's was a little more than a year ago. And I had to search for the chicken strips meal, and finally found it on the last page of the menu. So they may have dropped it.
Quote from: Jardine on October 28, 2017, 06:00:04 AM
Nearly 20 years ago I contracted the 'bad' E coli from an undercooked hamburger at a since closed restaurant in the Omaha/Council Bluffs area.
I was quite ill, and didn't realize just how severe it was till it was nearly over. I peed and pooped wrong/unusual colors and even had trouble walking for a couple days.
As an aside, E coli is a common culprit of traveler's diarrhea. So I'm pretty confident I've had E coli once or twice, myself, but it sounds better when you call it "Montezuma's revenge".
Quote from: J N Winkler on October 27, 2017, 09:11:07 PM
Quote from: kphoger on October 27, 2017, 12:42:45 PMMy favorite people-watching is at the Olive Garden waiting area during prom. Big poofy dresses, and guys who've never worn a suit before.
Is this the east-side Olive Garden? (Stylized observation: east Wichita = Urras; west Wichita = Anarres.)
Yes, Central and Rock. Right next to what we call "The Gucci Dillon's" (which, incidentally, is one of our usual grocery stores, even thought there's another one closer to us).
Quote from: webny99 on October 31, 2017, 01:40:21 AM
Quote from: jeffandnicole on October 27, 2017, 12:54:20 PM
I always figured you could take a dish from a chain restaurant, put it next to a dish from a local restaurant, and most people wouldn't tell the difference.
Where's that story of a local store that was serving fried chicken, and everyone was fond of it. Until, one day, someone happened to see an employee walk into the back of the store with containers of Popeye's Fried Chicken, and realized he were being served reheated chain-restaurant chicken.
Disagree big time on this one. That may be the case in Jersey, but here in Upstate NY (as well as rural areas across the country), our local joints have proper food (think Guida's Pizzeria, Empire Hots, Dinosaur BBQ, Ridge Donut Cafe). You can guarantee a way higher quality than anything you would ever get at a chain, and it will have taste, too.
Why did you think it was Jersey?
Actually...here's the story, and it's in California: http://fortune.com/2017/10/19/popeyes-fried-chicken/
And I will love to taste what passes for proper pizza in upstate NY.
Quote from: jeffandnicole on October 31, 2017, 06:21:12 AM
Actually...here's the story, and it's in California: http://fortune.com/2017/10/19/popeyes-fried-chicken/
I thought we were having steamed clams.
Quote from: formulanone on October 31, 2017, 06:29:16 AM
Quote from: jeffandnicole on October 31, 2017, 06:21:12 AM
Actually...here's the story, and it's in California: http://fortune.com/2017/10/19/popeyes-fried-chicken/
I thought we were having steamed clams.
https://youtu.be/Rj0Tj8dnrYw
Quote from: jeffandnicole on October 31, 2017, 06:21:12 AM
And I will love to taste what passes for proper pizza in upstate NY.
We could start a serious pizza war here, but simply put NY pizza is floppy crap.
Quote from: Brandon on October 31, 2017, 09:54:23 AM
Quote from: jeffandnicole on October 31, 2017, 06:21:12 AM
And I will love to taste what passes for proper pizza in upstate NY.
We could start a serious pizza war here, but simply put NY pizza is floppy crap.
I have never understood being exclusive in this regard. I love both thin crust and deep dish.
Quote from: Rothman on October 31, 2017, 09:58:33 AM
Quote from: Brandon on October 31, 2017, 09:54:23 AM
Quote from: jeffandnicole on October 31, 2017, 06:21:12 AM
And I will love to taste what passes for proper pizza in upstate NY.
We could start a serious pizza war here, but simply put NY pizza is floppy crap.
I have never understood being exclusive in this regard. I love both thin crust and deep dish.
Ditto. Love 'em both.
I should also mention that Chicago-style pizza is
not what the rest of the country thinks it is. The rest of the country seems to think it's basically deep-dish pizza, but that's just one part of what describes Chicago-style pizza. If it doesn't look like this below, then it's not Chicago-style. It can take 1½ hours to bake a good one, with two trips into the oven. One slice is a filling lunch.
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Chicago_Style_Pizza_with_Rich_Tomato_Topping.jpg)
Quote from: Rothman on October 31, 2017, 09:58:33 AM
Quote from: Brandon on October 31, 2017, 09:54:23 AM
Quote from: jeffandnicole on October 31, 2017, 06:21:12 AM
And I will love to taste what passes for proper pizza in upstate NY.
We could start a serious pizza war here, but simply put NY pizza is floppy crap.
I have never understood being exclusive in this regard. I love both thin crust and deep dish.
Me neither, I enjoy and expect some variations in my favorite types of food.
Quote from: kphoger on October 31, 2017, 10:58:10 AM
Quote from: Rothman on October 31, 2017, 09:58:33 AM
Quote from: Brandon on October 31, 2017, 09:54:23 AM
Quote from: jeffandnicole on October 31, 2017, 06:21:12 AM
And I will love to taste what passes for proper pizza in upstate NY.
We could start a serious pizza war here, but simply put NY pizza is floppy crap.
I have never understood being exclusive in this regard. I love both thin crust and deep dish.
Ditto. Love 'em both.
I should also mention that Chicago-style pizza is not what the rest of the country thinks it is. The rest of the country seems to think it's basically deep-dish pizza, but that's just one part of what describes Chicago-style pizza. If it doesn't look like this below, then it's not Chicago-style. It can take 1½ hours to bake a good one, with two trips into the oven. One slice is a filling lunch.
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Chicago_Style_Pizza_with_Rich_Tomato_Topping.jpg)
Are the toppings hidden somewhere in the mass, there, or are they verboten in order to be Chicago style?
Quote from: Scott5114 on October 31, 2017, 07:08:37 PM
Are the toppings hidden somewhere in the mass, there, or are they verboten in order to be Chicago style?
They're inside, under the sauce.
The only place I've seen Chicago-style deep dish like that was when Pizzeria Uno was still a national chain. I was a teenager, so naturally I scraped the tomato off the top.
How is Uno not national any longer? Also, I have had much better pizza than Uno's. Any style they do, a whole lot of people around here can do better.
Uno did a massive contraction in the mid-2000s. When it happened, I heard they were down to the few locations in Chicago, but I was misinformed.
Quote from: kphoger on October 31, 2017, 10:58:10 AM
Chicago-style pizza
Quote from: Brandon on October 31, 2017, 10:13:23 PM
Quote from: Scott5114 on October 31, 2017, 07:08:37 PM
Are the toppings hidden somewhere in the mass, there, or are they verboten in order to be Chicago style?
They're inside, under the sauce.
Yep, under the sauce. The order goes like this: crust, then about 1½ solid inches of cheese, then toppings (typically pepperoni or ground Italian sausage or spinach), then sauce. I used to get a slice for lunch every day back when I lived up there, until I realized I'd probably die of a heart attack within the year if I kept that up.
My friends and I went to a Hooters in Chattanooga while on a road trip. The restaurant was kinda empty for that hour of night, but there was some sort of guy in one corner of the restaurant in Arab garb apparently holding court with several of the waitresses.
Halfway through the meal, our waitress comes along to get our cups for refills. I'm halfway through a plate of wings, and I'm pretty thirsty, so I'm looking forward to more soda. She takes my cup and then never returns.
Again, the restaurant is mostly empty, so it's not like she got us confused with another table nearby. Over half an hour goes by and she is nowhere to be found. Finally, she shows up and asks if we need anything. I look her dead in the eye and say "I'd like my drink, please", and she has no clue what I'm talking about.
Needless to say, she did not receive a tip. I'm sure the Sheik in the back corner more than made up for it anyway.
Quote from: jeffandnicole on October 27, 2017, 12:54:20 PM
I always figured you could take a dish from a chain restaurant, put it next to a dish from a local restaurant, and most people wouldn't tell the difference.
Where's that story of a local store that was serving fried chicken, and everyone was fond of it. Until, one day, someone happened to see an employee walk into the back of the store with containers of Popeye's Fried Chicken, and realized he were being served reheated chain-restaurant chicken.
Well, to be fair, Popeye's is awesome.
iPad
I had a really rotten experience at an Outback Steakhouse a few years ago. The waiter, apparently a rookie, forgot about my wife and me. After taking our order and bringing our bread and glasses of water, we didn't see him for 20 minutes. We got his attention, he said he would check on our orders, and that was the last time we saw him. After another 20 minutes had passed I went to the manager and told her what happened. Without hesitation she had our dinners wrapped to go and comped the bill.
In fairness, I've been to that same Outback enough times to know that one bad experience was an aberration...and the manager certainly made it right.
Reminds me of an IHOP in Charlotte one afternoon when I was still living there. Got my food and waited an hour and a half for the check.
Quote from: SidS1045 on November 04, 2017, 09:50:02 PM
I had a really rotten experience at an Outback Steakhouse a few years ago. The waiter, apparently a rookie, forgot about my wife and me. After taking our order and bringing our bread and glasses of water, we didn't see him for 20 minutes. We got his attention, he said he would check on our orders, and that was the last time we saw him. After another 20 minutes had passed I went to the manager and told her what happened. Without hesitation she had our dinners wrapped to go and comped the bill.
In fairness, I've been to that same Outback enough times to know that one bad experience was an aberration...and the manager certainly made it right.
Is it just me, or is Outback extremely overrated and overpriced?
Years ago, I took a date to Outback -- or I tried to. The wait for a table was at least an hour. We (this was a double-date with one of her good friends) decided to eat somewhere else.
My first Outback experience was underwhelming. I don't remember where it was, but I do remember coming away with the feeling of "what is supposed to be so great about this place?" The only other time I've been to one was in Middletown, NY. There was one just across the street from the hotel where I was staying, and I didn't feel like getting out and trying to explore the town to find what was where, so I just walked over there to get something quickly. I remained unimpressed, to the point where I doubt I'd ever go back to one unless there was nothing else to eat for miles around.
Quote from: SidS1045 on November 04, 2017, 09:50:02 PM
I had a really rotten experience at an Outback Steakhouse a few years ago. The waiter, apparently a rookie, forgot about my wife and me. After taking our order and bringing our bread and glasses of water, we didn't see him for 20 minutes. We got his attention, he said he would check on our orders, and that was the last time we saw him. After another 20 minutes had passed I went to the manager and told her what happened. Without hesitation she had our dinners wrapped to go and comped the bill.
In fairness, I've been to that same Outback enough times to know that one bad experience was an aberration...and the manager certainly made it right.
And, to me, the manager doing the right thing by apologizing and comping the bill, would make a
huge difference, and would likely be the deciding factor on my returning in the future or not.
Quote from: hbelkins on November 05, 2017, 07:58:05 PM
Is it just me, or is Outback extremely overrated and overpriced?
Years ago, I took a date to Outback -- or I tried to. The wait for a table was at least an hour. We (this was a double-date with one of her good friends) decided to eat somewhere else.
My first Outback experience was underwhelming. I don't remember where it was, but I do remember coming away with the feeling of "what is supposed to be so great about this place?" The only other time I've been to one was in Middletown, NY. There was one just across the street from the hotel where I was staying, and I didn't feel like getting out and trying to explore the town to find what was where, so I just walked over there to get something quickly. I remained unimpressed, to the point where I doubt I'd ever go back to one unless there was nothing else to eat for miles around.
It's not a big deal, and certainly not in the same league with places like Fleming's, McCormick & Schmick's or Ruth's Chris. But, it's serviceable, decent food not too highly priced. I've never had an issue with the food, just this one incident with service.
Quote from: kphoger on November 06, 2017, 01:42:49 PMto me, the manager doing the right thing by apologizing and comping the bill, would make a huge difference, and would likely be the deciding factor on my returning in the future or not.
Absolutely. People make mistakes, but in the customer service realm, what makes the difference is how those mistakes are handled. This manager got it right. We've been back to that Outback and it's been smooth sailing.
Quote from: hbelkins on November 05, 2017, 07:58:05 PM
Quote from: SidS1045 on November 04, 2017, 09:50:02 PM
I had a really rotten experience at an Outback Steakhouse a few years ago. The waiter, apparently a rookie, forgot about my wife and me. After taking our order and bringing our bread and glasses of water, we didn’t see him for 20 minutes. We got his attention, he said he would check on our orders, and that was the last time we saw him. After another 20 minutes had passed I went to the manager and told her what happened. Without hesitation she had our dinners wrapped to go and comped the bill.
In fairness, I’ve been to that same Outback enough times to know that one bad experience was an aberration...and the manager certainly made it right.
Is it just me, or is Outback extremely overrated and overpriced?
Years ago, I took a date to Outback -- or I tried to. The wait for a table was at least an hour. We (this was a double-date with one of her good friends) decided to eat somewhere else.
My first Outback experience was underwhelming. I don't remember where it was, but I do remember coming away with the feeling of "what is supposed to be so great about this place?" The only other time I've been to one was in Middletown, NY. There was one just across the street from the hotel where I was staying, and I didn't feel like getting out and trying to explore the town to find what was where, so I just walked over there to get something quickly. I remained unimpressed, to the point where I doubt I'd ever go back to one unless there was nothing else to eat for miles around.
Many years ago I thought they were overpriced, and hated the way they claimed their steak 'done-ness' was different than others (like a medium in the rest of the universe was a medium-rare there, or something like that). Their pricing more recently seems to be more comparable to other chain restaurants.
As far as being impressed...it's hard to do so at chain restaurants. You have hundreds of locations with thousands of cooks trying to cook the same thing identically every single time, with waitstaff that experiences such a high turnover rate that it's unlikely you'll ever see the same server twice.
Personally, and I probably said it before, sitting at the bar usually results in getting a bartender that's been there a while. Go during an offpeak time, and they're usually pretty generous with the food and extras.
Quote from: hbelkins on November 05, 2017, 07:58:05 PMIs it just me, or is Outback extremely overrated and overpriced?
I personally don't eat at steakhouses except at family gatherings or when someone else is paying. I am trying to limit red meat in my diet, and I generally find I can do significantly better at lower cost in both time and money in my own kitchen, with a flatiron steak and lemon pepper. I have had prime rib cooked with mushrooms and wine and it is quite good, but also costs about four times as much as steak at home.
Quote from: hbelkins on November 05, 2017, 07:58:05 PMIs it just me, or is Outback extremely overrated and overpriced?
I visited an Outback only once around 2005. At the time, I was about 20 and had been to (and paid the checks at) many T.G.I. Fridays, Applebees, and the like through my high school and college years. I distinctly recall looking through the menu and thinking that the prices were considerably higher than I expected them to be–above the other chains mentioned, but with a similar overall feel and menu.
I've been a vegetarian for about a decade and have pretty much written off the chain "neighborhood bar and grill" segment as well, so I haven't been to once since. Perhaps it's different these days.
Quote from: J N Winkler on November 06, 2017, 08:03:38 PM
Quote from: hbelkins on November 05, 2017, 07:58:05 PMIs it just me, or is Outback extremely overrated and overpriced?
I personally don't eat at steakhouses except at family gatherings or when someone else is paying. I am trying to limit red meat in my diet, and I generally find I can do significantly better at lower cost in both time and money in my own kitchen, with a flatiron steak and lemon pepper. I have had prime rib cooked with mushrooms and wine and it is quite good, but also costs about four times as much as steak at home.
Not to mention you can cook a steak in a skillet with wine and mushrooms in your own kitchen, and then you still have the rest of the bottle to enjoy at no extra cost.
Quote from: briantroutman on November 06, 2017, 08:29:19 PM
Quote from: hbelkins on November 05, 2017, 07:58:05 PMIs it just me, or is Outback extremely overrated and overpriced?
I visited an Outback only once around 2005. At the time, I was about 20 and had been to (and paid the checks at) many T.G.I. Fridays, Applebees, and the like through my high school and college years. I distinctly recall looking through the menu and thinking that the prices were considerably higher than I expected them to be–above the other chains mentioned, but with a similar overall feel and menu.
I've been a vegetarian for about a decade and have pretty much written off the chain "neighborhood bar and grill" segment as well, so I haven't been to once since. Perhaps it's different these days.
IME, Outback can actually cook a good steak, though. I've given up ordering a steak at Applebee's and Chili's, because it's unappetizing every other time. They might as well not even ask you how you want it cooked, because it doesn't come out that way at the lower-end joints.
Steak is for teeth people.
I was eating at a Shoney's about 20 years ago. A guy at the next table suddenly started belching loudly, and he started to get up (maybe to use the restroom), and then he blew lunch all over the table. He ran for the restroom, and he spewed all over the floor several times while on the way. This really took the edge off of my meal...
Quote from: Beltway on November 08, 2017, 11:30:40 PM
I was eating at a Shoney's about 20 years ago. A guy at the next table suddenly started belching loudly, and he started to get up (maybe to use the restroom), and then he blew lunch all over the table. He ran for the restroom, and he spewed all over the floor several times while on the way. This really took the edge off of my meal...
:-D That is hilarious! I've never heard of belches preceding vomiting, so this was a unique event
Quote from: Beltway on November 08, 2017, 11:30:40 PM
I was eating at a Shoney's about 20 years ago. A guy at the next table suddenly started belching loudly, and he started to get up (maybe to use the restroom), and then he blew lunch all over the table. He ran for the restroom, and he spewed all over the floor several times while on the way. This really took the edge off of my meal...
Once about 20 years ago, some kid threw up all over a table at the local McDonald's.
Quote from: Brian556 on November 09, 2017, 01:16:05 AM
Quote from: Beltway on November 08, 2017, 11:30:40 PM
I was eating at a Shoney's about 20 years ago. A guy at the next table suddenly started belching loudly, and he started to get up (maybe to use the restroom), and then he blew lunch all over the table. He ran for the restroom, and he spewed all over the floor several times while on the way. This really took the edge off of my meal...
:-D That is hilarious! I've never heard of belches preceding vomiting, so this was a unique event
All in all, it was really sickening to see and hear this whole scene. The belching was disgusting in and of itself. I don't see where the restaurant staff committed any blunders, though, as they quickly sent someone out to clean up all the chunder.
Quote from: Rothman on October 31, 2017, 09:58:33 AM
Quote from: Brandon on October 31, 2017, 09:54:23 AM
Quote from: jeffandnicole on October 31, 2017, 06:21:12 AM
And I will love to taste what passes for proper pizza in upstate NY.
We could start a serious pizza war here, but simply put NY pizza is floppy crap.
I have never understood being exclusive in this regard. I love both thin crust and deep dish.
Reminds me of when I first started my freshman year in college. I asked a classmate where I could get good pizza. His reply was "What do you like? Italian cardboard or Greek sponge?"