Service With A Smile?

We don't eat out much as a family as it is hard to find the time to actually go to a restaurant and then there is the cost factor. But every now and then we do like to treat ourselves with take-out or delivery. We made the decision to order in Chinese on Friday from a local restaurant. We've never been disappointed before but after the meal arrived 35 minutes I have to admit I was pretty upset.

I maintained my cool when phoning the restaurant and the manager assured me it would arrive shortly. The excuse was that they had forgotten to take down our street address! Hmm...you would think they should call back right? Well...when it came it was a fresh order and arrived hot but they'd forgotten one of the items we ordered. Phonecall #2 to the manager (who as you would expect could not speak English well - so I'm not exactly sure what he actually told me) said something about the veal will come wight aways and the word fwee - which I assume to mean free meal? I have no idea if they tore up my cheque or not but it definitely extended our supper hour!

We decided to head off to Winnipeg for some shopping and to bring my bike frame in for warranty today. We got off to a late start as our girls actually slept in for a change. It turns out we got everything we wanted to get done that morning and decided to treat ourselves to The Olive Garden.

I think I must have some Italian blood somewhere in me as I love pasta! We ordered our meals, got our appetizer and the normal warm-up foods - salad or soup and breadsticks. Fabulous as always...35 minutes later - still no main course and our waitress has mysteriously disappeared.

Wendy starts lapping the restaurant with Aimee just to keep her entertained while I crayon up a storm with Chelsea. The stomach growls can no longer take it and somehow Wendy flags down someone who alerts the manager of our situation. It turns out there was some computer error and our meals still have not been prepared!!! Hmmm...well the manager does the right thing and offers to give our meals to us for free. By that point we were actually filled up on breadsticks and the like but the pasta we ordered still sounds good! We decided to go the takeout option and headed home....

What bugged me the most was not the computer error but the fact that our waitress didn't think to maybe give us a heads up as to when our meals would actually come! I'm a big proponent of actually tipping waiters when they do a great job but when service sucks - I'm sorry I'm not paying a dime. I also believe that we should treat people as actual human beings and not objects. But I have a huge problem when customers are treated as if they do not exist as well - especially when those customers include children - absolutely unacceptable.

I usually don't post negative stuff or beefs - so I'm hoping this will be the only one this year! Next take-out meal apparently is in our fridge courtesy of the Olive Garden...I can let you know if it is any good reheated!

Wen's Smoked Mozzarella Chicken


G's Stuffed Chicken Marsala