We invited our friends, Tom and Karen, out for dinner Saturday night. We were going to Freddy’s, a local sports bar that has prime rib TO DIE FOR—Saturdays after 5pm only. Tom had previously had it there and said it was the best he’d ever eaten—plus the boys REALLY REALLY love steak—so they were really looking forward to it.
So we get there around 6:15 and when the guys ordered their steak, the waitress said “We’re actually out at the moment. It’s going to be about a half hour.” We asked how they could be out of the special barely an hour after it started, and she said they had had a run on it earlier. Okay… well, we had ordered an appetizer anyway, so we didn’t think a half hour was TOO long to wait—especially since it was going to be SOOOOO good. Both guys ordered it medium rare (this is important for the rest of the story). I then tried to order a sandwich and asked for texas toast instead of the regular bread. She said they were out. Oooookay—half their sandwiches are on texas toast, but whatever. So I said “Just give it to me on the regular bread then.” Oh, no, she says, they were ENTIRELY out of bread! After the issues with the steak, we just had to laugh at them being out of bread as well.
Fast forward AN HOUR, and we finally get our meals—the guy’s steaks were finally (apparently) done. Except that they were too done—meaning both of the steaks were medium to medium well, almost bordering on well done! Tom said it tasted horrible, probably the worst he’s had. Our friend Tom agreed that it was horrible. When the waitress came over to see how everything was, they both complained, said the steak was completely overdone and ruined, and they wanted two more. She said they had gotten the last ones! WHAT? 88| They were out when we got there at 6:15, and then an hour later they were out again? The waitress did say that a bunch of steaks had been sent back earlier because they were cooked wrong…which we’re guessing is why they ran out! The boys ate them anyway, since by that time we were all very hungry.
We just kept talking about it and sorta laughing about it, but the more I thought about it, the more pissed off I got—so I went to get a manager. And guess what? He wasn’t there! Ironically, he had gone to their sister restaurant/bar to get…bread! And no one on the premisis had any authority to take care of us—we had to wait until the manager got back! Thankfully, it was only a matter of minutes before he was back and over to our table. I told him how horrible the steaks were—aside from having to wait an hour, they were completely overcooked and a complete waste. And it was even worse because we had had the prime rib there before and it was absolutely fabulous. He apologized and basically said he would talk to the kitchen so it wouldn’t happen again—and that he hoped we’d give them another chance. He didn’t appear to be saying anything else, so I said “You WILL be taking care of the bill, right?” Oh, yes, of course he was. And of he went.
About five minutes later, the waitress brought our checks and said that the manager had taken….30% off our bills. Wait, excuse me, WHAT? For the steaks to be completely horrible, he only took 30% off our bill? I wasn’t too happy, but figured I just wanted to be done with it and get out of there. Until we saw that he didn’t take 30% off the entire bill, but rather just took 30% off the price of the steak! OH NO NO NO, that was NOT going to fly. And by that point, I was so pissed off that I was not going to accept anything less than a full comp for the two steaks.
Now, let me just say a quick word about our waitress… She was a cute little thing, and she felt HORRIBLE when she had to tell us the steaks would be late, then when we told her they were overcooked, then when we complained about the bill. One time, she looked like she was about to cry. She felt so bad about everything—but as a waitress, what can you do when the kitchen screws up? We made sure to tell her it was not her fault and we knew that—and that she was doing just fine. We also made sure to tell her that we’d be letting the owner know about the whole thing (she’s a fellow realtor and we used to work in the same office) and that she [the waitress] was great!
So when the poor waitress came back over and asked if we were ready with our bills, I said, “Unfortunately, no. I don’t mean to be a bitch about this, but he only took 30% off the steak. That is ridiculous! For two meals that were late in arriving, not cooked as ordered, and not able to be reordered…” She said she’d talk to the manager again. She was back in a few minutes with new bills, with the prime rib completely comped. Thank goodness.
So then we decided to go out for dessert, and we went to our little ice cream place up the street. Our friend, poor guy, ordered his favorite ice cream—and they were out! We had a good laugh about that.
So today Tom and I went out for lunch because we had a coupon for a “buy one get one free” sub at another sports bar. After taking probably 10 minutes to decide what we wanted (they have a huge sandwich menu), we ordered. And within a few minutes, the waitress was back to tell Tom that they didn’t even make his sandwich anymore and she wasn’t even sure why it was still on the menu! 88|
So, overall, not a good weekend for food!
