Not a way to run a Restaurant

A few months ago a national restaurant chain opened a restaurant in our town. Our town is not big enough to have many of the national sit down restaurant chains here but this is the first of what we hope are many restaurants to come. That would mean our little town is growing.

Now I have been to this new restaurant on several occasions and I understand that they are a new restaurant. As with any new restaurant, they are training their new staff to be up to the standards that this restaurant chain expects. The first several times I visited were uneventful, the service I received was what I expected and the food quality was good as expected. But, on my last three visits I have had problems and I wonder if these problems indicate a growing problem.

My first problem was several weeks ago. I stopped for lunch and ordered. Since they have a great Bacon Cheeseburger that is what I ordered. I sat and ate my lunch in peace. My Bacon Cheeseburger was what I expected and it was great. Everything about the meal and service was as expected, up to expected standard of this restaurant, except when it came time to pay.

I paid with a $20 bill for a $10.xx bill. The waitress took the bill and my money and headed off. I assumed she would pay the bill and return the change since paying at the table is normal for this restaurant chain. After several minutes and not receiving my change, I tracked down the waitress. Apparently, she thought that I was leaving a $9.xx tip on a $10.xx bill. I did not agree with that assumption. She got my change for me and she appeared not too happy about it. I left a reasonable tip on the table and left. Friends later told me I should not have left a tip and reported the incident to the manager. Maybe I should of.

Incident two was about two weeks ago. I stopped for lunch and ordered the same thing. Hey, I said I liked their Bacon Cheeseburgers. I did not realize it at the time but I had the same waitress. Now whether this had an affect in the outcome of this lunch or not, I do not know. On this particular day I had taken an early lunch, at 11am, so the restaurant had just opened and was not busy.

While I was waiting for my food to arrive, I watched other people arrive, sit down and order their meals. I then saw some of them get their meals while I continued to wait. The waitress stopped by and said the kitchen is running a little slow. Ok, sometimes things happen.

I waited longer and saw the people who arrived, sat and ordered after I did, eat the burgers they ordered (I ordered a burger also) and then started to pay for their meals. I flagged the waitress down and she repeated “the kitchen is running slow” problem. I started to explain that I ordered a burger, this restaurant is suppose to be famous for their burgers and the other guest nearby ordered burgers after I arrived and have already finished their meals. She went for the manager.

The manager arrived and apologized for the delay and offered to pay for my meal. He said my burger will be right out. True to his word, my burger arrived about one minute later. So now this Bacon Cheeseburger I ordered, which I ordered medium-well, sat in front of me. One bite told me that this burger was rare and not as done as I wanted. I looked at the burger. It appeared to be quick cooked with almost burnt on the outside and rare in the middle. Since I now had 10 minutes left to my lunch, I ate around the outside a little bit, pulled the bacon with most of the cheese from the sandwich and ate that with most of the fries. At that point my lunch was already over and I knew I would be late returning to the office. I headed out the door. I was not a happy camper and I was still hungry but I had no time left to complain or wait for a replacement.

My third incident happened just a few days after the second. I stopped by in the evening, sat at the bar and ordered my dinner with a beer. My beer was promptly delivered and I watched the football game on the bar TV. My dinner arrived and I quickly notice it was not what I ordered. I ordered the Pasta Shrimp Parmesan dinner and what was delivered to me did have pasta in it but also had chicken. I told the waitress about my order and I was told that was what I ordered. I asked where the shrimp was and I was told I did not order shrimp. Oh, yes I did. They took the plate away and I wanted for my proper dinner for them to prepare what I originally ordered, which arrived a short time later. I should mention the food was very good.

But I have to think about things. I know there will be mix ups now and then with a restaurant but what are the odds that I get three things wrong on three consecutive visits? Am I that unlucky? I do not have problems at other restaurants.

This restaurant needs to watch how things are done a little better. I don’t know if I will be watching them better because I do not know if I will visit them again. I know I will not, at least for the time being.

My expectations are simple and I suspect these expectations are the same as yours. I expect a clean restaurant. I expect timely and courteous services. I expect to receive the food I ordered, in the condition to which I ordered it in a timely manner consistent with the type of restaurant. I expect the food to be of good or better qualify and the drinks either hot or cold, depending on the drink. I expect to receive the proper change after paying and the wait staff expects me to leave a fair and reasonable tip for the service rendered.

Any time those expectations are not met you become a dissatisfied customer. And yes, I am dissatisfied customer.