Thursday, November 16, 2006

Worst Meal, EVER!

Last night, R and I went to Chilis for dinner. We've had poor service at just about every restaurant in town, including Chilis. But last night topped them all!
We started out by waiting 10 minutes for our server to take our drink order: two waters. 5 minutes later they were brought to us (but we weren't asked for our food order). 10 minutes later the server returned and asked if we were "ready to order." We were, so we ordered their "take two" meal which includes 2 meats (we chose the house sirloin & honey sirloin) and 2 veggies (steamed veggies & mashed potatoes). We asked for it to be brought out on 2 plates (house sirloin + potatoes, honey sirloin + steamed veggies). I also ordered a cesaer side salad. 10 minutes later, I got the salad and the server realized that we didn't have silverware. We got our silverware, I finished my salad, then about 20 minutes later, our server told us that one of the steaks was done, and it would only be "a few more minutes" until our food was brought out. 5 minutes later our food came out. I had to ask for a refill on my water, and we asked for A-1 sauce. By the time those were brought those to us, we had realized that we hadn't been asked how we wanted our steaks cooked, and they were well-done. (We usually get medium, or medium-rare.) Not only were they overcooked and tough, they were also extremely dry, and barely warm! R told the server that the meat didn't look good, and why hadn't we been asked how we wanted them cooked. The server told us that "they normally come cooked like that." R said he wasn't happy, and could we please speak to the manager. The manager and server came back out and we explained that we weren't happy about waiting 25 minutes to order and another 30 minutes for our food. We weren't happy about the server's job (we had to ask for refills and we weren't asked how we wanted our steaks cooked). And, we weren't happy with the FOOD itself. The manager offered a free dessert or discount off our meal, and we could just let the server know when we were finished. So, we attempted to eat the tough steaks and cold veggies, but it really was that bad. Besides the crappy steaks, everything else was terrible, too. R's mashed potatoes were burnt on the bottom, cold in the middle, and the cheese on top had that crusty look that cheese gets when it's been sitting out. And, my steamed veggies included burnt broccoli (how do you burn steamed broccoli?) and cold carrot and bell pepper slivers. We both took a few bites of our respective veggies and steaks, debated on if we could even eat the nasty food, and waved for our server. We explained that the food was terrible and we were too angry (and hungry) to wait for new food (yeah, like they wouldn't SPIT in it after all THIS) and we didn't feel like we should pay for it. The server left and came back with a zeroed-out check.
Being the nice guy that he is, R still left a $2 tip.
I've been very non-descript in the details of the server and manager. I've had bad service (not nearly this bad) from all kinds of people, but I'm curious if y'all would guess that our server was a man or woman. I don't know if that has anything to do with the attitude and bad service we had, or maybe the person was just having a bad day. Either way, it will be a long time before I eat at this Chilis again. Now I'm wondering if I should go to Chilis "corporate" and complain.
Have you ever had worse service than this? What did you do about it?

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