Sandy Supposes....

Surly server

PROMPT: Talk Tuesday! Tell us about a store or restaurant you refuse to go to because of poor service.

         With all the road trips, and travelling I've experienced, there has only been one memorable restaurant fiasco. It happened during Christmas'ish 2015 in Florida. My family and I had driven from our Northern Ontario, Canada home to the Disneyworld area of Florida. Every evening, we graced a different restaurant for our meals. We liked variety, and lets face it, we were tourists.

         This particular suppertime, it was just us girls. The men had opted to attend a classic car show, and we had to choose a venue within walking distance of our motel. We discovered a Chili's.

         When we first entered this eatery we thought we'd lucked out, it was not busy. Huh, that should have been a red flag, but, hey, what did we know?

         We were saddled with a surly female waitress who didn't believe in the formality of a friendly greeting. She was by far the worst server we have ever encountered. She did not care. She took our orders and then scurried off. She was never occupied with other customers. She just had us to ignore.

         First it took a half hour before she deigned to bring our beverages. Not once during the course of our stay did she bring, or offer refills. Our meals arrived in fits and starts. My eldest granddaughter wasn't served anything. We shared with her after we approached the waitress to ask where this food was hiding. She never once apologized, or explained, or offered to make this right. After almost an hour of further waiting, the lost meal appeared, and lo and behold, it was not as ordered.

         We've dined out enough to know that servers make a habit of removing empty, dirty dishes from the table on a continuous basis. Not this waitress, she let the dishes pile up.

         During our stay, the waitress hid in an alcove next to the kitchen door and played with her cell phone. It seemed to be the only thing that snagged her attention. When we were vacating the premises, we made sure to inform her that she was a lousy server. Several of us have worked in the profession in the past. We always make a point of thanking those who wait on us, and often we chat with them. This Miss Congeniality/Work Ethic reject just shrugged.

         We were a long way from home at that time, but we have not forgotten. Should we as a family ever return to that neck of the woods, we will be avoiding that particular restaurant. In stark contrast, we loved the waitress we met two mornings in a row at an Orlando IHop.