Friday OT #2 - Take This Restaurant and Shove It!

[SCyclone]

Been a couple mentions of wait service in the thread, so I thought I'd comment.

My ex-mother-in-law (who was a waitress at times in her life) was the rudest person I've ever seen when dealing with wait staff. Absolutely no patience, talked down to people, etc. Made me embarrassed every time it happened. My take is that 95% of wait staff are good people who are genuinely committed to serving you the way you expect to be served. Many times the kitchen or the bar will let them down, and they have to take the flak.

Tipping is another thing......my current father-in-law, who is by nature a very generous man, is a skinflint when it comes to tipping. He'll take us all to dinner and then leave a $5 tip. (On, say, a $60 or $70 tab.) So my wife and I, who used to argue with him about it to no avail, surreptitiously fatten it up for the wait person. I'm a generous tipper, unless the service absolutely sucks - usually 15-20% is a rule for me. I know those people are for the most part woefully underpaid, and as someone who is in a service business, I understand.

Just my 2 cents........

 

[Playboi Carti]

Burger king is so disgusting. It amazes me that the Ames location is still open.

 

[NATEizKING]

I don't let politics or ****** service get in the way of good food. Only thing that stops me from eating somewhere is if I don't like the food.

 

[BoxsterCy]

I am reassessing my self image as a snob based on this thread. Cannot come up with realtime examples of places I hate to go so much. Products for sure, just not stuff in line with the trend of this thread. What the hell is going wrong with me!

 

[CycloneErik]

I am reassessing my self image as a snob based on this thread. Cannot come up with realtime examples of places I hate to go so much. Products for sure, just not stuff in line with the trend of this thread. What the hell is going wrong with me!

That's another thread!

 

[coolerifyoudid]

T-Rex Cafe in the Legends area in KC. We went once for a friend's son's birthday party. Food was really bad and I felt like crap.

Years later, my own daughter begged and begged to go there. We caved and went there. The food was horrendously overpriced and just bad, the service was bad and the table and chairs rocked badly. We had to flag our waitress down to ask for the check, and then waited 15 minutes for them to pick the check back up and another 10 to return. Oh, and all of us felt sick for hours afterwards.

It's now the family joke to bring it up whenever someone shoots down another idea of what to eat.

 

[3TrueFans]

I don't let politics or ****** service get in the way of good food. Only thing that stops me from eating somewhere is if I don't like the food.

Definitely not politics for me, but bad service is an instant deal breaker for me.

 

[Cyfan1965]

Who the **** orders a plain hamburger??

My kid wants to taste the actual burger not all the condiments and cheese on it.

 

[cyclonpediaJoe]

Wal-Mart on 8th St in West Des Moines give me a panic attack going there on the weekends.

 

[3TrueFans]

My kid wants to taste the actual burger not all the condiments and cheese on it.

Taste the meat, not the heat I tell you hwhat.

 

[Bret44]

**** CHIPOTLE.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

I remember having multiple friends who just salivated when CF went in to Jordan Creek.

It's a huge menu of wildly mediocre food, IMO. It reminds me of Applebee's - they just don't do anything great, but people line up for that crap. It's certainly not worth waiting for 2 hours to even get seated.

I've never understood the CF craze. I lived on the east coast for 4 years and they where everywhere and I always found their sandwiches average at best.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

Jethro's. lights fuse and runs away...

The original location has always been pretty consistent but I've had some pretty awful BBQ at the Waukee and WDM locations.

 

[JP4CY]

My kid wants to taste the actual burger not all the condiments and cheese on it.

OK, your kid is about the only one on the planet that must not like ketchup.

 

[cysdaone]

For me, its Steak N Shake in the Iowa City area. I don't understand why people like that place. The service is terrible. We went there once about 5 years ago and the wait staff dropped three trays of food at different times. Drinks splattered on us and my wife's shoes were soaked. Not even an apology. On top of that, we waited an hour for them to bring us our food which was overpriced and not even that good.

 

[WhatchaGonnaDo]

I haven't had dessert at Hickory Park since then, but I'll still eat HP.

Texas Roadhouse became one for me. I like the food, but their website's page about peanut allergies was too in-your-face for me. We have a daughter with a peanut allergy, and it would likely all be fine without the bucket at the table, but the way their website read that first time closed the door for me.

I also have a peanut allergy.

My first time at TR, the waiter was a real jerk about it.

I ended up sitting at the opposite side of the table and was worried the whole time.

Never going back.

 

[runbikeswim]

Pretty much any Chinese restaurant for me anymore except PF Changs. I have bad reactions to MSG, and even if they say they don't use it, I have had an allergic reaction on occasion. Noting like a swollen throat to make you not trust a certain type of food.

Plus, they all overuse their oil to the point everything fried gets that dirty oil fishy aftertaste.

 

[247cy]

T-Rex Cafe in the Legends area in KC. We went once for a friend's son's birthday party. Food was really bad and I felt like crap.

Years later, my own daughter begged and begged to go there. We caved and went there. The food was horrendously overpriced and just bad, the service was bad and the table and chairs rocked badly. We had to flag our waitress down to ask for the check, and then waited 15 minutes for them to pick the check back up and another 10 to return. Oh, and all of us felt sick for hours afterwards.

It's now the family joke to bring it up whenever someone shoots down another idea of what to eat.

Truth!

 

[cyclones500]

In the related-theme thread, I noted my dislike of Culver's, with caveat that I'd had it only a few times. It could've been a matter of what I ordered (my first try was a mushroom-swiss burger. It was awful).

 

[CycloneErik]

I also have a peanut allergy.

My first time at TR, the waiter was a real jerk about it.

I ended up sitting at the opposite side of the table and was worried the whole time.

Never going back.

That's sad. They missed the whole idea of treating customers well.