This is kind of a long story, so don't say I didn't warn you, kay?
Last weekend, Junior and I decided to treat the kids to dinner out. It had been a few weeks since we had been to a restaurant other than fast food, so we headed to our family favorite, Golden Corral. For those of you who are not familiar with this restaurant, it's a buffet place that has family style food and the best salad bar around, in my opinion. We don't usually go out on weekend nights, because I have serious problems with crowds, but Junior really anted to go, so I sucked it up.
We got there around 5:30, and the place was hopping. We found a table big enough for the five of us, and the waitress came over and introduced herself, asked what we were drinking, and then disappeared.
Now, like most buffet places, you have to use a clean plate for every trip. Let's say that each of us used four plates...1 for salad, 1 for bread, (they have an amazing bread bar with the most delicious bruschetta topped italian bread...but that's not my point here) 1 for dinner, and 1 for dessert. That's 20 plates for our family of five. During the entire meal, the waitress never removed a dirty plate from our table. We had to flag her down for drink refills, and at one point I watched her go back and forth between three other tables, and ignored us.
This was okay...I have patience. BUT, when Junior and the kids all left the table, I flagged her down because all of our drinks were empty, and we needed refills. She asked again what we had, and off she went. She came back with two drinks, mine and Junior's, and told me she would get to the kids in a little bit.
Um, WHAT????
I was floored. She basically told me my kids weren't worth her time. Not a good idea, lady.
So Junior comes back with his dessert, and I tell him what she said. He gets up from the table, and I knew where he was going. Just like I thought, he returned with the store manager, and let's just say he wasn't exactly keeping his cool. He wasn't mean, mind you, just frustrated, and wanted the manager to see what our table looked like. I know my husband, and thought it best if he sat back down and cooled off. As the manager walked away, I took Brandi to get some ice cream. The manager stopped me and asked me what happened, and I told him what she said about the kids drinks. He asked me if I thought the waitress was overwhelmed because they were so busy and short handed. I told him very nicely that his staffing problems weren't my problem, and that even if she was busy, she could have taken a minute to bring my kids refills. She was making time for all the other tables. Then, get this, he tells me she is new, and it's her first night waitressing.
Are you freaking kidding me?
They put a brand new waitress, with no experience (his words) alone on a Friday night? No wonder she didn't have a clue. It wasn't long after I sat back down that all the plates were cleared off our table, and we all had fresh refills. Then the manager comes over with a coupon for three free buffets to use the next time we came in.
So last night we head back over there, and little did we know, it was kids night. Junior, Ryan and I ate for free, and Brandi and Kasi ate for $.99. The bill came to $2.14 for the five of us to eat. Of course, it cost a little more because we left a nice tip. The waitress we had last night was wonderful.
I wonder if she knew who we were....
7 comments:
I LOVE Golden Corral. I only go for the salad bar and soup. Oh my goodness. We just went the past weekend. They had a waitress for awhile and Daniel would only sit in her section. She flirted with him but oh man did she give good service and always remembered us. We have only had an issue once and it resulted in speaking with the manager and it was quickly resolved.
I am glad they gave you those coupons at least for waiting around - I HATE when they don't clear plates off the table. It drives me nuts!
WE had an experience like that once, my friend, and her 2 year old Layani,and I went to cracker Barrel, we waited for 20 min to get waited on, the it was a 45 min wait for two salads and a kids grilled cheese, and no refills in between, when we went into the restaurant it was 12 when we left it was almost 2 which is Layani's nap time, I had words with the management that day, they weren't even really busy.
Why in the world would they put a new girl on a Friday night? It sounds like they were trying to make excuses to you, but it's good they gave you coupons.
Great they did that! We used to go to this buffet that charged 50 cents for every year your kid was, so that was great!
We also love Golden Corral. We don't have any around here. We use to go to FL once a year and we ate as many meals as we could there. The kid's loved it. That was very nice of the manager to give you the free coupons for your bad dinner. You are so right that he should never of had a new person start on a busy night!
We like Golden Corral. Never had a problem there, and it's always really busy.
Your experience just shows that you really need to speak up when there is a problem. A good manager would really want to know if there's a problem, so it can be addressed. Getting a cheap meal out of it is a great bonus!
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