Craig C.
Yelp
So many things went wrong, it became laughable.... we are done.
My first visit here mid-pandemic was amazing, the burger was incredible, the Aurora beer so amazing I bought a jug and took some home. Brought my family (and my jug) with me for my second visit, and all our food was unremarkable, my family thought I must have hallucinated my previous visit. We left without any take home boxes, even tho we all left a significant amount of food on the table. I walked out without refilling my jug. The server didn't notice, didn't ask about the food or the jug, just gave us the check and wished us a nice day. I wrote a negative review about the experience, and a manager or owner replied that this was unlike them and to please give them another chance, that they would increase training for their wait-staff. ( That review is now gone from Yelp for some reason. ) I did appreciate the response.
My third visit was without issue. I figured maybe the 2nd visit was a fluke. My family was not with me this time, so I could not re-establish their appraisal of my level of sanity.
So tonight was our fourth attempt a Helluva, my wife and I had a craving for burgers and headed out to Zipps ( only a mile away from Helluva, one block north! ) which was packed, so we diverted to Helluva. Got right in. Ordered drinks and fried pickles from our server Cheyenne. Wife orders a medium-well burger, and I order a medium-rare Black and Blue. Pickles arrive and are tasty but heavy on breading and thin on pickle. Still good.
Then the burgers come out. I notice blood on my wife's plate around the burger, so I asked her to cut and check before taking a bite. Blood really grosses her out. She cuts and its very rare. So I cut mine, and no pink. They must have mixed up the cook on the patties. We point this out to Cheyenne, and she goes to check. She comes back and carries the burgers back to the kitchen with a promise that they will fix them up for us. (At this point I'm thinking that this is about par for the course for Helluva and us.)
A few minutes later, "TJ" comes out to our table and begins explaining to us that they temp all their burgers to standard temps with thermometers, that "medium" is this temp and "rare" is that temp, and so on. I found it pretty condescending, but did not get irritable with him. He then double checks how we want our burgers cooked. I'm pretty insulted now. I've been ordering burgers medium rare for about 40 years, same for the wife and medium well. The mistake was not the level of cook, or that we had no clue how to order what we wanted, but that the orders were simply wrong (reversed). It was a forgivable mistake until we got the third grade treatment from TJ. We are still wanting a no stress evening, so we remain calm. Cheyenne is very apologetic through the whole thing.
TJ delivers the replacements and asks us to cut them to make sure they are right for us. We oblige and accept them as cooked. (Interesting note....even though TJ earlier claimed that everything is temp checked, neither of the replacement burgers were bloody, so the data does not support his claim.) Wife liked hers, mine was bland and not moist, but i was hungry, so ate most of it. (Such a shame, as none of my subsequent visits have even come close to the first visit...maybe I was hallucinating.)
We declined desert, and received the check. My wife comments, "Wow, a hundred bucks!". I was shocked and just ready to pay and be done with this place. Picked up the check to attach my card, and noticed everything was doubled. We had been charged for all four burgers, even the wrong ones that went back. I waited for Cheyenne's return, at some point she must have caught the error because she was already apologizing as she approached the table, retrieved the check and said they would fix it. I think it was at this point where we switched from being disappointed to finding things humorous. Cheyenne returned with a corrected check, and they had removed my wife's burger, leaving us with a $39 total. Nice gesture, but I would have gladly paid full price had the meal just been executed in a competent manner.
So I go to fill out the check, and give Cheyenne a full tip, she had been very kind throughout.
It was at this time that we switched to full on laughing at the experience...even the pen didn't work....
We are done Helluva, we tried....multiple times.
( If anyone wants a free Helluva jug, used only once, it will be in our recycle can. See pic.)