My name is Jenn, and I'm a 27 year old married and babied chick. In addition to a husband, a seven year old daughter, and a five year old autistic son, I also have four cats, three hermit crabs, two frogs, a few fish, and one snorty little Pug. I work from home doing a variety of writing and even some web design. I love blogging, digital photography and web design.
Last night Dan, the kids and I went out to Chili’s for dinner. We get there, and I ask the hostess for a booth — not because I have anything against tables, but because it’s obviously much easier to keep two small children corralled in a booth than at a table. So she seats us, gives us menus, tells us our server will be right with us, and leaves.
We wait. And wait some more. And wait a bit more. Meanwhile the people in the booth behind us receive their check, the people in the booth in front of us receive their food, and a server checks in with the people in a booth next to us. Finally, at least 15 minutes after getting there — around 8:00pm on a Thursday night, mind you; it definitely wasn’t very busy! — I spot an employee clearing the table behind us. I call him over and ask if he could find our server, as we’ve been waiting a while and are hungry, and the kids in particular are both hungry and antsy. Turns out he’s the manager, and after apologizing profusely he took our drink and food order and whisked it off to the kitchen.
Sadly, the manager was the only highlight of our meal, as we had to keep getting his attention to get silverware, napkins, etc. The server came out after the manager placed our order with our drinks, and she stopped back once toward the end of the meal and again with the check and a hopeful please-tip-me-well expression on her face, but that was it. Until we flagged down the manager during our meal we had 1.5 silverware sets to go around (seriously, two forks and a spoon — no knives, so Dan’s steak cooled before he had the chance to try it) and one lonely little napkin. Obviously that is not enough silverware and napkins for four people!
The manager was nice enough to offer free dessert — which the kids took him up on, and I feel bad that he had to make up for the server’s clear lack of… whatever. I don’t know what was going on. The manager said we were seated in a closed section, but clearly we were not.
For what it’s worth, I did tip the server, but I left 10%. Normally I leave at least 20%. I felt bad, but Dan agreed that 10% was good — and certainly better than nothing. We joked that we should have tipped the manager instead, heh.
Will we go back to Chili’s? I don’t know… this particular restaurant isn’t exactly close by for us, and I’m not too keen on the idea of driving all that way for another frustrating, albeit delicious-when-it-finally-was-ordered-and-cooked, meal.
wow that’s really bad service! i’m really shocked that the manager didn’t make your server do her job instead of ignoring you! and how on earth could you possibly have been in a closed section if others were seated around you?
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They might’ve been in the process of closing the section and the hostess didn’t know and mistakingly seated you in the section. Doesn’t excuse the service, but sort of explains the delay. Everyone probably thought that since the section was “closed” that you were someone else’s table.