I've occasionally gotten to a restaurant, seen it was too busy, and just left, but this was the first time I've ever walked out after being seated.
So yeah. Husband and I were going out to dinner tonight. Just some casual food, nothing fancy. We went to a local Hawaiian grill that we've never been at before. It was packed when we walked in, but everyone was there for this live ukelele thing, which ended while we were still standing there, so the crowd was all getting up and leaving, and there was maybe one other table actually still eating, and *nobody* else at all had arrived anywhere near when we got there. So it wasn't actually busy at all, just some clumps of people lingering, talking to the band.
Anyway, waitress seated us, got us water, and then asked if we needed a minute to order. Since we'd never been there before we said yes. So she walked off.
Five minutes later we'd decided on what we wanted, and set our menus aside.
Then we sat.
And sat.
And sat.
It was a good fifteen minutes, I think, and the entire time we could see the waitress busking tables, doing stuff that yes was work and yes was her job, but could DEFINITELY have waited while she got our orders! I literally turned around in my chair to try and catch her eye and flag her down after a while, but she totally ignored us, didn't even glance in our direction once. A fifteen minute wait is one thing when it's super busy, but when there's nobody else there to serve it's just ridiculous.
So we figured she'd forgotten we were there. I said to my husband, "Well, I can get up and go get her, or we can leave." He said leave, so we left.
We ended up at Noodles and Co. which I can't say enough nice things about, they have terrific food and the service has always been stellar. So it wasn't really all that bad, but I was still pretty miffed! When you have just two tables, one of whom is nearly done eating, how do you forget completely about one of them? Yes there were people standing around, so it's not like we were the only folks there, but we were the only folks there who needed serving!
So yeah. Husband and I were going out to dinner tonight. Just some casual food, nothing fancy. We went to a local Hawaiian grill that we've never been at before. It was packed when we walked in, but everyone was there for this live ukelele thing, which ended while we were still standing there, so the crowd was all getting up and leaving, and there was maybe one other table actually still eating, and *nobody* else at all had arrived anywhere near when we got there. So it wasn't actually busy at all, just some clumps of people lingering, talking to the band.
Anyway, waitress seated us, got us water, and then asked if we needed a minute to order. Since we'd never been there before we said yes. So she walked off.
Five minutes later we'd decided on what we wanted, and set our menus aside.
Then we sat.
And sat.
And sat.
It was a good fifteen minutes, I think, and the entire time we could see the waitress busking tables, doing stuff that yes was work and yes was her job, but could DEFINITELY have waited while she got our orders! I literally turned around in my chair to try and catch her eye and flag her down after a while, but she totally ignored us, didn't even glance in our direction once. A fifteen minute wait is one thing when it's super busy, but when there's nobody else there to serve it's just ridiculous.
So we figured she'd forgotten we were there. I said to my husband, "Well, I can get up and go get her, or we can leave." He said leave, so we left.
We ended up at Noodles and Co. which I can't say enough nice things about, they have terrific food and the service has always been stellar. So it wasn't really all that bad, but I was still pretty miffed! When you have just two tables, one of whom is nearly done eating, how do you forget completely about one of them? Yes there were people standing around, so it's not like we were the only folks there, but we were the only folks there who needed serving!
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