Tuesday, September 04, 2007

I love free food and great service!

We were out running errands all afternoon yesterday, into the evening. Around 5 we decided to get some dinner. Went to one of our favorite places. Right off the bat our service was terrible. We were taken to our seats by the hostess and told she'd be back with bread as soon as it was ready (sometimes they run out and you wait a few minutes for the next batch). No big deal, she brought it right over within minutes. So our waiter finally comes to the table and takes our drink order. We told him we'd like some plates and could also use some more bread and extra butter, as we'd already gone through half of it. We waited for a while and he didn't come back. My husband went to the bathroom, returned and the waiter still hadn't come back. How long does it take to get a Dr Pepper and Iced Tea? So, finally after about 10 minutes he brings our drinks and takes our order. We told him we still needed plates and more bread and could we also please get straws for our drinks? Of course he says and walks away. We waited some more. Daughter had to go potty so my husband took her. Taking a child potty for #2 isn't super fast but when they returned our waiter still had not come back with our plates, bread, or straws. Meanwhile I had been watching the other tables around us be given fresh bread by their servers. And staring at my drink wishing I had a straw because I was thirsty! We don't like putting our mouths on restaurant glasses - we're finicky like that. So we said screw this and decided to leave. Obviously the service was probably not going to improve and we weren't going to deal with that lack of service for an entire meal.

We decided to make the manager aware (especially since we'd already ordered) so we tracked him down after having another server point him out. We explained that we were leaving and told him what had happened so far. He immediately said that he would take care of us personally from then on if we would sit back down. I was quite starving so we said ok. He directed us to a table, one booth over from where we were (the other one was already cleared off), brought us new drinks, with straws, and fresh bread and butter, with plates. Asked if we were ready to order and when we said we had given the other server our order he checked on that and verified it with us. He brought us new drinks before ours were half gone. Fresh bread and butter before we had finished our basket. Twice. Checked on us numerous times, even going so far as to apologize that the kitchen was so busy and our food was taking a long time. Which we understood, we have no problem waiting for our food on a busy night, but to wait for 20 minutes for bread, straws and plates was unacceptable!

Anyways, the food was great, the service was great, and when he brought us our check he told us he had taken care of it for our trouble. Now that's service! And that is why we love this place so much - the food is great and any time we've had a problem management has done an excellent job of taking care of it and making us happy!

That's great customer service and that's how you keep people coming back!

In case anyone is wondering, the restaurant is Tex@s R0@dhouse. Nice, casual, loud atmosphere that is perfect for bringing a toddler along and great food at realistic prices! And they obviously care about their customers!

4 comments:

Mony said...

The squeaky wheel...! Sometimes it is definately worth complaining. Hmmmm....I feel like a steak now....it's only 9.00am.

Furrow said...

We've got to learn to complain. We always just take the abuse. Doesn't work out so well...

Roy said...

Yay yummy food! It's times like those that I leave a ridiculously huge tip for the person that fixed the problem.

We had a similar issue one night at the bar/bowling ally (we, as in 9 people), waited 45 minutes for beer (and she told us we had to get pitchers because they weren't serving towers, but we watched somebody get a tower 10 minutes after we ordered/35 minutes before we got served pitchers). We had so much problem with food orders (90 minutes to get a club sandwich) that I didn't even order. I saw a friend working there and asked if she'd be our waitress instead, she couldn't, but ordered my food for me. 7 minutes later I had everything I asked for, she got a 150% tip ($2 fries, I only had a $5, not a bad deal really). Good service goes a very long way...

katy said...

I love that restaurant. Whenever we eat there a manager or someone stops by to ask if everything is ok. I made the mistake once of saying my steak wasn't done the way I asked and the manager immediately offered me another (though I had eaten half of the first one) which I declined and he took it off of my bill anyway.
My daughter is dating a waiter from Tex*s Roadh**se so we get PLENTY of rolls....usually a dozen to take home.