An annoying restaurant experience.

Last night my husband, son and I were out and about at a function I had to attend for work. After the event, around 6:45 or so, we left starving and decided we would stop to find something to eat. My son kept making wonderful suggestions from McDonalds to White Castle, and I while I appreciated his frugal-ness, we wanted something a little more healthy.

So we drove for awhile, actually about 30 minutes towards home and then beyond looking for something we could all agree on. It was one of those nights…. Anyhow, we happened across an Applebees and although I think they are overpriced, we turned into the lot and made our way inside.

From the get-go it wasn’t quite an ideal experience. We walked in to an empty waiting area only to be passed and ignored by three employees before one finally came up to us and asked us how many. My husband told them, “three and we would like a booth if possible.” My son tends to be a fidgity-gibit and he’s easier to control in a booth. Anyhow, we walked past no less than three empty booths to be taken to a table. My husband said “are there any booths available?” (having seen the same three I did). The hostess said “well, I can clean that one off if you want to wait.” “That would be great” my husband said still being diplomatic.

While they were cleaning the booth, I made my way to the washroom and when I came back the waitress was taking drink orders. I stood there – VERY seven months pregnant and told her I’d just like a glass of water. She stood there, pressed against the table wrote down my order but didn’t move. At that point I was thinking to myself ‘look lady, I can go ahead and push my way through you or you can move so I can sit down’ but I didn’t. I waited for her to finish taking the drink orders and then sat when she left.

My water came almost immediately, followed a few minutes later by my husband’s beer. While waiting, my son had broken one of the two crayons they gave him and politely asked the waitress if he could have another one. Ten minutes went by and still my son had no drink and no crayon. He was patient, I was irritated. She came back to take our orders and I asked Jake (knowing full well we had already ordered it) “you wanted a fruit punch, right?” The waitress then looked confused, looked around our table, then went to the table next to us. I heard her say “I gave you the wrong drink, that is fruit punch.” They handed her the drink and she brought it over to our table. “This is your drink, she didn’t drink any of it. She only drinks milk, they come in every week.” The woman in the booth next to us turned and said “we hadn’t even touched it yet.” I’m sure the look on my face was one of surprise and I know my husband was annoyed that they didn’t just go get a new one. And, of course, we didn’t ask. My husband did press down on the lid where the straw goes and the plastic was still sealed, so it was ok. But I was still annoyed.

The food came a little while later – prior to which my son was using a yellow crayon on their gray children’s menu – and actually didn’t complain that his writing was hardly showing up nor that they never brought him another crayon. The food was brought by another waitress, and they had my son’s and my husband’s first. She placed my son’s plate down, said it was hot and then proceeded to PUSH it across the table to him pushing his drink and his coloring paper almost into his lap….not to mention the hot plate right up to him. I immediately pulled it back and got him to grab his drink before it bit the dust. She then went back to get my food – fajitas and proceeded to put the plate close enough to my face to burn my nose hairs to set it right down in front of me – she was so close I had to lean to the side to ensure neither my chest (which currently is competing with my stomach for the award for biggest weight gain during pregnancy) or my stomach, got nailed with the plate. Don’t these people know anything about personal space!

We began eating and my husband discovered his mashed potatoes were ice cold. The waitress apologized and brought him some hot ones, and…guess what….three nice new crayons for Jake. This was a woman who said she has a young boy, why would she bring the distraction WHILE the kid was eating? Luckily he was focused on his mac-n-cheese, so I (while trying not to be annoyed) said playfully “oh, let’s hide those until he’s done.” Guess where she put them? Under my plate. Guess what happened? They melted. Moron.

I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. My husband had to literally inhale his glass of beer. What was funny about that was it took him about 4 swigs. After he was done he said “man, I’m getting old, I used to be able to do that in one swig.”

Tweet