Service

I realize it is ironic that I said that whole thing about not blogging because I didn't have anything nice to say, and then coming back today to rant. But heck- at least I'm trying.

Yesterday Scott and I went to a chain restaurant for lunch (not mentioning any names, but think birthstone + day of the week). We were seated at a table in the bar area (the only people seated in that section) and I think our waitress was the bartender. She was a little slow, but not worth complaining about.

We both ordered the salad bar, ordered an appetizer, and ordered burgers. Our appetizer was delivered by the food runner, who mumbled something along the lines of "here's your food" before running back to the kitchen. Scott still had a few bites of salad left, and finished that before starting on the appetizer. So imagine our surprise when, less than two minutes later, our burgers came out. Delivered by the same runner who had just left our table. AND she cleared my empty salad plate and Scott's completely untouched appetizer plate, leaving him to eat his appetizer off of his salad plate.

I brought this to the attention of the bar-tress, who asked if we still wanted the appetizer (umm... YEAH!) and apologized and said she'd tell the manager. A few minutes later, a girl dressed in jeans, a restaurant-logo t-shirt, and a restaurant-logo zip-up sweatshirt came out to apologize. I saw this girl a little while earlier, and assumed she was a busser by the way she was dressed.

So anyway, they didn't care. I thought that at the very least they would have knocked a few bucks off of our bill. This chain is one of my favorites (mmm... love those mini burgers), and this particular experience isn't going to stop us from going back. But I'm not so sure I'll go back to that location any time soon.

Life is too short to settle for bad service. Right?