26 September 2014

Breakfast: oatmeal and coffee

Lunch: boiled then fried boneless skinned chicken and microwaved potatoes and a couple of little Oreo cookies for desert with a can of "Pepsi MAX"

Dinner:  We went to "Prime on the Nine" since Kathie wanted their crab cakes. She really liked them!

I considered the costs of a steak, thought of how fat in a steak can upset my stomach and went for:

• steak and potatoe soup (I ordered a cup but got a bowl; I will have the leftovers for lunch)
• spaghetti with meatballs
• iced water

The food was simply outstanding and the service excellent.

They should have the "wait staff" at both Applebees and the Casino Restaurant come to learn what good service is all about!  I won't talk about the service at "Kate's" or "Central Station Club & Grill" or "The Dodge House" or that Mexican Place at the mall as I haven't been to them is a while and don't know if the service is as wretched as it was several years ago. "Casey's Cowtown" is second to "The Prime on the Nine" for service... For that matter, the three buffets - Inn Pancake House, King's Buffet and the other "Chinese" Restaurant - have fine service given they are buffets.

There is a certain irony to the phrase "wait staff" as we get seated at either Applebee's or the Casino Restaurant and start waiting for the "wait staff" to acknowledge our existence. A waiter/waitress should be at your table in under 30 seconds from the time you are seated. You should not have to flag down a waitress (Applebees, our last visit) or be at minute 8 of your "ten minutes with no service and we walk out" count down (Casino Restaurant, our last visit) when "our" waiter, out of breath, hustled up.

I appreciate that waiting table is hard and poorly paid work but we are the customers and we pay tips so we deserve reasonably good service. In theory, tips are paid for good service. Now, it seems that tips are paid out of pity to the "wait staff" who are paid sub-minimum wage. We've been to foreign countries (England and Venice Italy) where the service was poor but then, they are paid living wages and don't expect or deserve tips; some waiters are insulted that you would even offer a tip. (This is a fact that Kathie could not seem to grasp...)

Dodge City "wait staffs" have a poor reputation for service. Sadly, they have earned this reputation...

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