Cassandra R.
Yelp
Let me start out with the fact that I myself am a server. So whenever I go to a restaurant I will always give the server the benefit of the doubt. Even if I experience terrible service, I will still tip 18%, because that is the only income a server is getting at that job.
My boyfriend and I stopped in on a Wednesday night last week before we headed to a local indoor soccer game. We weren't in a rush, but we figured with average service, we would make it to our destination on time.
It started with us walking in and waiting for the hostess to seat us. Looking around, the place was not busy; the bar was probably half full, and there were maybe 4 or 5 other tables sat. Three or four servers passed by us, before finally a host acknowledged us, and grabbed some menus to seat us. We were about to be seated at two separate tables, but the host inspected them saying they were dirty. We finally were sat at a table when the man who sat us stated "your server will be right with you. I don't know who it is, because I don't know whose section this is, but someone will be right over."
We looked over the menu for about five minutes while making small talk, nobody came over to take our drink order, nobody came over to greet us. We decided to press our "call server" button on the machine sitting on the table, so that someone would come to take our order. Instead of our server coming over, it was actually a hostess. She stated that she did not know who our server was but she would take our drinks. When she returned with them we asked if we could put our order in because we have a game to get to. She took our order, and put it in as well. When the food arrived, it was still not our server who delivered it to us, but the food runner.
Mind you, the restaurant was not busy, at all. It was maybe 20% full throughout our dinner.
The food was delicious, there were no complaints at all, and it came out at a reasonable time. After we finished our food, we were sitting for about 10 minutes awaiting somebody to walk by so we could grab them and get a check. We weren't quite sure who to ask being that we went through our entire meal without having an actual server. When we really were pushing our time limit we pushed the "call server" button again. No one came over. No one came over for quite some time, the light just blinked and blinked on... My boyfriend wanted to leave cash on the table and just leave, but I couldn't do that. Finally, a man who I believe was a busser (he was carrying the bucket with dirty dishes) came over after seeing the call server light flashing, and offered to grab our check, and I asked for a to go box. He brought the box and check, and we handed him cash and asked for some change. When he returned with our change, he had rounded down shorting us 57 cents instead of giving us exact change. Our entire meal, we never met our server. After this terrible service we did not want to leave any tip at all, even if we did leave a tip who would have went to? No one person made a trip back to us twice. This was probably the first time that I didn't leave a tip (except for the 57 cents). I couldn't even believe that this dining experience happened. What kind of a business does someone run where you go to a sit-down restaurant and don't even meet your server? I was pretty furious, and quite honestly I don't plan to return. I am a very easy-going guest at dinner, but this was just not okay. At the end of the soccer game, many people were hungry, and I told them not to go to UNO on Boston road, because I would never want someone to experience what we did.