We visited our local restaurant on Sunday evening, hoping for a light dinner in a casual atmosphere. The service is usually slow but we weren't in a hurry and decided we were relaxed enough to deal with it. Well, we were seated near two men who were obviously intoxicated and who were still drinking. The noise and disruption were incredible, banging on the table, constant loud complaining about everything, plus our waitress was distracted by them every time she came in our direction.
After twenty minutes, we had our drinks and that was it - hadn't even been able to order dinner or speak to a waitperson again after the initial seating. We finally couldn't take it anymore and moved ourselves to another table. It didn't make any difference - these guys were horribly loud and rude.
We decided to leave but first, we actually went to the host to pay for our drinks - a grand total of $5. He referred us to the bar, where we ran into the manager. We related our story and said we just wanted to pay & get out.
We refused their offer of another table because quite frankly, we were tired of the whole place by this time. The manager apologized, said it wasn't usually this way at the restaurant, said they had done everything correctly as far as serving alcohol (which is hard to believe since the guys were still drinking & getting louder by the minute), etc - but he still let us pay our $5 for drinks!
This didn't really hit us until we were back home later that evening (after a very nice quiet dinner at a competing restaurant) because we were so upset & anxious to leave the restaurant at the time. I've been in customer service for fifteen years, five years in the restaurant business, and I can't believe that they actually let us stand there at the bar & pay $5 for an absolutely horrible experience, which also cost us over half an hour of our time by the time we were going out the door! We will definitely hesitate MUCH more before going there again.
0 comments