Never Going Out to Dinner Again!!!

Last night B and I were on our way home discussing dinner. He mentioned some disgusting Stouffer's pasta dish that's in the freezer and our conversation "somehow" quickly changed to eating out.

We decided to try an Indian place near our house. Now we tried this place a year ago, but the service was so horrible that we decided never to go back. Sure enough, we walked in and noticed 4 employees had to take care of the entire place. Basically, we stood waiting for 10 minutes and at no point did the host acknowledge us or the other 4 groups that walked in after us and piled up in the front. One lady got up from her chair and asked for the check. A table of 3 came up to the front to get their own menus. A couple from the bar commented to the host that they had been forgotten and should've been seated before another group did. B and I looked at each other and walked out.

We then decided to hit Applebee's. We parked in front, walked to the entrance and the manager met us at the door. "I'm so sorry," she said as she handed each one of us a biz card with her name and the words '$5 off' written on the back, "but we're experiencing technical difficulties tonight, so the kitchen is closed. Please accept these coupons as our apology." We thanked her and left...

...then went across the street to Uno's. While waiting for our seat, a lady commented to the manager that she had been waiting 25 minutes for her to-go pizza and was getting frustrated. He left to figure out what was happening and never returned. Oh well. Anyway, this time we actually got as far as being seated! Wow. We selected drinks and waited for our waiter. He arrived and I ordered a beer, "I'm sorry, but we're out of that." So I selected another, "I'm not sure we have that. Let me check and get back to you." It took him about 10 minutes to return to us, but we did see him stop at the table before ours and clear a plate...then check on another table...then give the check to another table (after they had requested it)...then he came back to us. "No, we don't have that, either." So I picked another and we ordered apps and our meals all at the same time.

The couple that asked for their check commented towards us as they got up, "We only had to wait half an hour to get our check."

As the manager set our nachos on the table, he let us know that he'd bring plates. So we started eating and worked our way through half of the nachos until I gave up. I walked halfway across the restaurant, found our waiter and asked for plates and napkins. He handed them to me and asked if we had silverware yet (which he promptly delivered to the table in a pile with napkins and handed the stack directly to me to sort out). We noticed a few other funny oddities and I asked our waiter for the check before we were finished. He delivered it by the time we were done and I had to chase him down for a to-go box.

I know: negative, negative, negative. I should describe the evening like this: We stopped by an Indian restaurant and the poor staff was overutilized. We felt bad for them and moved on to Applebee's where we got $10 for the next time we go! Then we went to Uno's where the waiter was really nice and got our entire order correct. All of that AND we still have a Stouffer's pasta dish at home to eat some other night. What a great dinner evening.

(In all honesty, we did have a lot of fun)