J M.
Yelp
Great Thanksgiving Dinner - but TERRIBLE Customer Service.
So, I decided to check out Margaritaville's special Thanksgiving turkey dinner this year. The food was outstanding - but the service was frustrating and awful.
First, the food: The turkey was fresh and tasty, the green beans were cooked to perfection, the gravy was flavorful & mouthwatering, and the potatoes & cranberry sauce were great. No complaints. I was actually surprised by how fresh and tasty everything was - considering turkey isn't this restaurant's normal menu. Even the pumpkin pie for dessert was great.. And, of course, I love the margaritas.
There was no stuffing - which Thanksgiving dinners normally serve. The ad said there would be stuffing - but there wasn't any during my meal - so this was a bit disappointing. I think they substituted baby potatoes for it. But that was my only complaint about the meal.
Now - on to the service. To say the service was terrible - would be a huge understatement.
I booked a reservation for two.
When we arrived for our 2pm reservation, there was no line-up at all, and there were only 2 other tables with customers - the rest of the restaurant was empty. The front attendant took us to our table and gave us menus. Then we waited - and waited - and waited. When I finally saw a waitress, I tried to flag her down - and she said another woman would be assisting us shortly. (So, there were actually 2 waitresses working - and they only had 3 tables to serve). Yet, we wound up waiting another 20 minutes or so - before our waitress finally came to our table to take our order.
This lack of service continued through the entire meal - where it was impossible to flag down our waitress to bring water, salt/pepper, or provide any other service we needed- because she was nowhere in sight. The waitresses would disappear for long periods of time, leaving the customers without assistance at their tables.
I know that this restaurant's management is notorious for under-staffing its restaurant - which is a shame. I've watched, during past visits, the lone bartender frantically trying to serve 15+ people AND take takeout orders at the same time. It was always a frustrating experience and required LONG wait times to order anything. . ... But they didn't have this excuse this time, as these 2 waitresses had only 3 tables of customers to serve when we were there.
The final straw came when we asked for the bill. She handed us her digital device to fill out - and then left for another 10 or 15 minutes. So, we sat there trying to figure out how the device worked on our own. When it came to the tip, it had boxes for 15%, 25% and 30% (or something similar). But the customer service was so poor, I didn't want to leave 15%. So, I wrote in 10%. Then, I got error messages - and had to re-do the whole thing... .And when I went to print a receipt from the device, it came up with an error message stating it was out of paper. ... So, we had to flag down our waitress again - which took another 10 minutes or so - and she said she'd have to print it off at another location. When we finally got the receipt back, the 15% tip had been added back - instead of the 10%.
So, overall - great food, but terrible service. If you don't mind long wait times and poor customer service, then this is the place for you because the food and prices are great! But if you're hoping for great customer service in addition to good food, then you might want to skip this one.