bad service

Bad service can be had from the "wait staff" and the kitchen (as well as the bar and the person doing the seating).

In the past couple of weeks, we have experienced first bad service from a waiter (and good kitchen service) and excellent service from a waiter and piss poor service from a kitchen.

Appleby's redeemed themselves to my wife and me last night with excellent service and won their way back into our hearts (and wallets). My report:

http://dying-by-fork.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-years-day-2010.html

First, there was our visit to Appleby's in Dodge City around 10 December 2009:

We were seated at Applebys and apparently we were at a table between waiters/waitresses. We started waiting and no one would wait one us! One waiter kept going past us and kept stopping at the table across us. After a while, my wife tapped this waiter on the arm as he went past us, completely oblivious to our presence. My wife asked "are we at a table without a waiter?"

He said "I'm your waiter. Are you ready to order?"

We said "yes" and we ordered. It took a while for a runner (not the waiter) to bring out plates.

The food was good and thus, the kitchen service was good.

I was thinking of ordering a second beer, to wash down the rest of my chicken fajitas (it was my turn to be the "DD" (Designated Drinker) and not the Designated Driver (I almost never drink at a bar or restaurant anymore).

However, I didn't get the chance to order that second bottle of MDG or to convince my wife we should order "shooter" deserts. "Our" waiter walked by, put the bill between Kathie and I and wished us a pleasant evening. This was so unlike Appleby's that we just looked at each other in shock.

We were hoping the Manager would come around but none did. (Another un- Appleby-like action).

We ended up paying but flagging down a passing waitress and she took our bill.

The problem was "our" waiter had an obvious GAF attitude. "GAF" is/was a US Navy slang term from the early 1970s and comes from "I don't Give A Fuck [man]".

Then, there was our meal last night at the Boot Hill Casino Restaurant:

First of all, we had a great waiter at the Boot Hill Restaurant! He was a young fellow who did a fine job and earned his tip!

We ordered the 14oz Ribeye steak with baked potatoes and water. It took a long time for the meal to come. In fact, our waiter dropped by the table, apologized for the wait and went back to the kitchen to check on our meal.

A couple of minutes later, a runner brought the food out, our waiter gave us the plates and we were ready to go.

Kathie took a small bite out of her potatoe and said "this potatoe is cold".

I touched my potatoe and sure enough, it felt as cold as if it had just came out of the refrigerator. I was pissed off!

We called the waiter over, told him both potatoes were cold (I repeated what I'd said about it feeling like it just came from the refrigerator) and he took the plates back to the kitchen.

Our waiter came back and said "it will take 20 minutes to cook more potatoes.

I said "put them in the microwave oven".

He said they could not and asked if we wanted mashed potatoes and brown gravy. We agreed to this.

No manager came around to apologise for the cold baked potatoes and in fact, we didn't see a manager at all!

I suppose the focus at Boot Hill Casino has been on the gambling and not the food. Well, I'm not much on gambling but do like a nice meal.

Last night was the third time we've eaten at the Boot Hill Casino and the first two time were excellent! We have heard people bitching about bad food at the BH Casino and we thought they had to be wrong.

It now appears the quality has moved downhill since the BHC restaurant opened and that has only been 11 days!

Events Have Consequences

We have not been to Appleby's since "our"waiter was so damned rude and GAF. We thought about going there may be a week ago but decided to have dinner at home. So. in a manner of speaking, that Appleby's waiter has helped us to save money! Thanks GAFman!

My wife knows one of the Boot Hill Casino Managers and sent him a strongly worded email today. Hopefully, this will help.

She made a point of telling this friend that our waiter last night was excellent and that we were quite pleased with the service that we got. I hope this young man doesn't get hurt in any blowback.

Update: 2 January 2010:

We went to Applebys last nigh, had excellent service, typically good food and heard "our" waiter from 3 weeks (or so) ago had actually been a cook sent out front.

My wife emailed an exec (friend of ours) of the Boot Hill Casino about the

• wait at the bar,
• piss poor service at the bar,
• long wait for dinner and
  
• refrigitator cold baked potatoe,
  

the last time we went there for dinner. We talked with folks at Applebys last night and one young man talked about being cut off at the Boot Hill Casino bar at 1:40 am. The normal cut off time, for Kansas bars, is 1:55 am. Perhaps he'd had too much to drink but he said the bartender had cleaned up the bar by 1:35 am and was clearly ready to leave early.

This was the wrong thing to do; a true professional would have stayed open and kept serving the drinks (and making money for the Boot Hill Casino bar).