Kitchen Nightmares

I watch a lot of resturant/cooking shows on tv. I admit it. Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, Iron Chef, Next Iron Chef, Top Chef, etc. It's amazing sometimes what people will serve. I actually saw a contestant pick something out of the garbage and put it on a plate to serve to the public. (They were quickly eliminated) There's a quote out there I'm going to paraphrase from Jackson Browne, "Character is what you are when nobody is looking". I think this is really true in the kitchen!

So on with my story. My mother, a Tucson/Washington State snowbird, is down for the winter and on our first day together I invite her out to breakfast to a place we've been many times. We notice upon entering through the attached gift shop that it is now 50% in size, and many tables have been added in the back. The place just has a few late breakfast diners this mid-morning.

They seat us in the main isle across from the door, and being that it's a 50 degree "cold snap" here in Tucson, my mother asks for another table not so cold. We are seated at the booth closest to the kitchen. "Uh, oh, they're mad at me," my mother jokes.

Presently, we are served drinks and our order is taken. The place begins to fill with early lunchers as we visit and catch up on news. After awhile, it occurs to me that everyone who filed in after us is eating; I contact the waitress. I put on my nicest voice and ask if perhaps our ticket got lost. She jumps to the defense, although I am trying to calm her that we are not angry, we just hope we get our food eventually, and she shows us the ticket and says there was a computer malfunction. The ticket had indeed been submitted 25 minutes ago. We assure her it's okay...we just want to be sure it's coming.

We hear her yelling at the chefs in the back and soon have our meal. The plates are cold, the bacon is cold and chewy, the eggs are still raw in the middle (ordered scrambled and over medium) etc. We're hungry and decide to just eat anyway, mostly because the waitress looks beleaguered. I finish most of it and excuse myself to the restroom.

Well, if I'd have entered the restroom before our food arrived, we'd have left. The filth, the compounded dirt in the grout and corners and walls -- needless to say, my half raw scrambled eggs were no longer sitting easy in my stomach. A cursory check at things as I left the restroom had me wondering what happened to kitchen cleanliness. I began to visualize the Kitchen Nightmares discovered by Chef Ramsey in the tv shows....

Our meal was only a grand total of $8.99. We told the waitress about the poor quality food at the end, just to let her know, and we said we were going to pay anyway. And I left her a tip over 15%. But we won't be back. We're telling our friends. We're disappointed that another locally owned Tucsonan resturant bites the dust that previously sat high on our "list".

My children said - (because I have a history of receiving poor service) - why do I even go out?


I guess I'm just looking for characters....

CUSTOMER SERVICE – A thing of the past???

Last night, my wonderful in-laws took my husband and I (and Jenna) to a very nice place to celebrate our anniversary. Because the hostess area was full, we sat outside in a fountain area to wait for the 30 minutes they said we had before a table would be free. We couldn’t wait in the bar area with a minor. Not too many Tucson restaurants take reservations, so we accepted a thirty minute wait as normal for a Saturday night. After 20 minutes, my husband went off to make sure they knew where we were. He was told it would be another 20 minutes.

During the next 45 minutes, both Jenna, and my mother in law also checked. We were told there was a party of 6 at the table we would be seated at, and had to wait for them. Now, this is a large restaurant, and they only had ONE table for more than 4??? As we waited outside, we watched dozens of people enter the restaurant. After an hour wait….they finally seated us…OUTSIDE!!!
Now this might not seem like much at first you think, many restaurants have attractive outdoor seating, and so does this eatery. However, bear in mind that we live in Tucson, and this is SUMMER. We were not seated in the regular restaurant garden seating with misters, fans, or anything like that, but instead in a far off solitary section of two tables set up next to the parking lot and the indoor restrooms. We politely asked to have an inside table as soon as it became available and they said “sure”. By this time our “Sunday best” dress clothes, hairstyles, and makeup were all much the worse for waiting so long in the heat.

Thirty minutes later my daughter went in to check on the status of “our table” and they’d given it to someone else. This was when my husband called for the manager. And before he got to the table, the entrees were served. Two of the five of us were served the wrong meal. Rocco was served the wrong sides with his meal. When we spoke with the manager, he said, “Oh, I’m sorry.” Asked what side Rocco had ordered, and left.

Our bill totaled over $150. There was no discount, no complimentary beverage, no dessert on the house, no coupon for return. Nothing.

Are we over-reacting here – or is this standard service now. This is NOT the first time we’ve had celebratory meals made memorable by bad service and a lack of care for the consumer. I figure, “they don’t care” = a nice blog, twitter, facebook and online reviews for all their
future customers. Oh, and watch out…the chicken SPECIAL is $26.00.