The Denny’s on 40th

March 19th, 2006

There are two Denny’s directly accessible to me; one in either direction. The one on 88th is your typical Denny’s… Decent food, decent service, and nary a long wait time (save for Sundays). The one on 40th, however, is the prime example of why the food service industry as a whole has taken a steady downhill tumble. After all, most of us, as a society, have made eating out as more of a necessity than a treat.

My husband and I pulled into the restaurant about 8 p.m. Saturday. They were moderately busy, but short staffed. They sat us anyway, right by the kitchen. The waitress tended to us promptly and we were prepared to order right away. Me? A milkshake (figuring the food would be awhile I needed something before I fell over), grilled cheese w/ bacon and tomato; my husband a Diet Coke, Philly Cheesesteak and as mozarella sticks as an appetizer.

The food arived in less than 10 minutes. My husband’s sandwich was perfectly prepared. Mine, on the other hand, was two slices of toast, two slices of cheese, two slices of bacon and a slice of tomato. All cold. It wasn’t a grilled cheese at all, but rather condiments slapped on two pieces of dry, cold toast.

When I posed my problem about the sandwich, the waitress looked confused, hesitate to take it back to the kitchen. So I cut my losses and avoided any further hassle. “Okay, I’d really like nothing, then.”

She was dumbfounded, and proceeded to attempt to convince me to let her take it back to the kitchen. I just wasn’t in the mood for any more hassles, so I replied. “No thank you. My husband will just eat his. I really would not like another.”

“Okay,” she said as she walked away. Ten minutes later, while my husband was nearly finished wih his meal, the manager walks over, a sandwich in tow (holding the bottom of the plate with his fingers and the top of the sandwich with his thumb). “Mam, I have sandwich. I fix for you.” I explained that I did not want another sandwich (and especially not the one he had his hands all over), but being that he spoke very little English, he didn’t understand. Finally, I just looked at him and said, “I don’t want it. Please bring us the check.”

Ahh, the check. We were wondering what the bill would be, considering we never got the cheese sticks…

After ten more minutes of being ignored, I asked another waitress for our table number, so I could just go to the register. She was quite nice and promptly ran my check out of the machine. Of course she had to adjust it for items ordered, but not received nor accepted.

The manager catches us and asks if there’s any problem. Problem? Huh? He was just working with us. He escorts us to the register, then says (I had to struggle like mad to understand), “I am manager, if you have problem, you ask for me.”

“We were just working with you.”

“I on floor. I can’t see all of restaurant. If you have problem, just ask for me.”

“But we did ask you for the check, ten minutes ago.”

“I help you.”

“Help me what? Our waitress abandoned us, you didn’t bring us the check, so we asked someone else.”

“What did you have?”

“You have the new check, that’s what he had.”

“But what you have?”

“Look at the check…”

He takes my Amex and a few minutes later the machine spits out a slip.

“You have discount, so you have new bill.”

“What?”

“You have discount, no?”

“No, we don’t have a discount. Please just charge us for what we had.”

“But I see discount.”

“Will you please charge the card so we can leave?”

Tick, tick, tick. I finally get a slip to sign - $5.93 (apparently he was saying he gave us a discount).

Upon leaving we noticed Denny’s asking for our help. If we call a number and take a survey, they’ll give us a code which will garner a free drink upon our next visit. Wow, $1.80 for taking time out of my life…

Instead, I’ll be sending a letter to the corporate office, with a simple link to this entry. That should suffice in explaining my latest experience.

 

Entry Filed under: Rants & Raves