How things change with time...

[maxie]

Sierra works fast food and says it is hard to get a full shift to come in. These are not all kids and they just plain and simply do not even bother to call off...just no show. I would never make an excuse for poor service or dirty serving dishes but I look at the servers who are there working differently now. They are trained off of videos and if you are going to not show for a shift you are certainly not going to put in much effort when you are there. But she also says customers can be the meanest and pickiest people and sometimes it is hard to give your best when you have been yelled at by the person before for something trivial or to have food thrown at you for a mistake a coworker made. I do not defend poor service, rotten food and dirty utensils but I do have another way of looking at things now. We also are good tippers and I never short a server because I now know that I don't know what is going on in the kitchen or in the home of my server for that matter. Just another perspective from the grandma of a food server.

[JoGee]

Paula, Hawaii should be good, I think. They're bigger on tourists, and should be more considerate.

Now, back here in Tuscon. Yesterday we went to an Applebee's after my appointments. We read the menu for quite a while. Our waiter was standing at a table full of men....about 7-8 of his cronies, I think. He finally came to our table, took our drink orders and walked away, not asking if we'd decided on our meal (we'd had more than enough time).
Where does he go? Back to the cronies! Saying goodbye to one who was leaving, picking up his dishes.....still hadn't made it to the bar or kitchen. So we got up and walked out.
Oh, he followed us and said..."Hey, we get busy at lunchtime!" I told him, "For anyone but you!" Gues he will probably be in trouble with his boss.

The next Applebee's gave really great service, though.

[Paula A]

Reading this just today and now more than a little hesitant about eating out in Hawaii!

[JoGee]

We leave big tips, too. But a lesser-than-average tip is a message to the server. A tiny tip is the biggest overall statement. (Like the waiter who ignored me. Didn't offer another dinner as waitresses have, when I said my fish was really awful.). Our comments of complaint do not go to the cashier, we ask her to call the manager out and talk to him. Some cashiers are truly afraid to tell the manager or chef if something was wrong.

[Mayebarnes]

I NEVER send food back to kitchen..... have heard horror stories of stuff being spit on ..etc etc... so I either ask for new.. like Burnt Toast ,I will not eat ..... IF I order something new on the menu and just don't like it .... like fish dinner that turns out "really fishy:... I mention it as I pay .. but the dish may have been fine to someone else... I have only one manager that deduced the meal from the bill.. .... I will mention the water glass to the little girl server where we ate ... I know all the girls there.. and she is kind of new... she needs a teaching lesson..Ha.. and we leave big tips...

[JoGee]

I agree, there's no excuse for these things. If they wouldn't serve themselves without better care, then they shouldn't serve customers. We have a few restaurants in Tucson we don't go to any more for the same reasons. I haven't ordered from Dominos pizza since we found an ink pen baked under one pizza.
Our niece ordered salad without tomatoes (big allergy), but they served it, took it back and picked out the tomatoes (was asked not to, but there were seeds and juice left), which she said "forget it, take it off the bill!" DD & friends went to a big favorite restaurant in CA, one friend ordered a dish and asked no mushrooms (also huge allergy). They returned with his dish, but he didn't realize they'd just scraped off the mushrooms; after 3-4 bites his neck was swollen, and his friends got him to the hospital ASAP. He nearly died in the hospital. The restaurant saw no reason to take his meal off the bill.
Some restaurants are not hesitant to use flatware full of water spots....you can't tell very easily whether it's just water spots, or something unwashed. But if you get that, be sure to check your cups & dishes as well. These are otherwise "nice places". Being busy or rushed is no excuse either.

Have been thinking of in the future, making notes and taking pictures to send to the Health Department.

[Mayebarnes]

read through this Jo ... and could see what a disappointment all the places were ..... but I do believe the food preparations are getting sloppy.... I got a glass of water with a chip on the lip of the glass... showed it to the server.... told her she might want to drop it in the trash can...what she should of done without me asking her . was whisked it away and brought me a new glass of water instantly... but she did not .. Daughter in law got a refill glass of ice tea.. with a piece of scrambled egg floating in it.????
BUT... the restaurant was very busy and the servers were being rushed .. so just did not take the time needed to check out their dishes... forgetting the extras you ask for... still.. that s not a real excuse .

[JoGee]

My birthday weekend was nice, and this was one time we had to make it nice because the town had changed.
We had planned to use the pool, but my lower GI problems nixed that. Even though we were nearly the only people in the big motel. We had been loyal to this place for a few years, and it was a nice place - and appearances appear so. But it takes more than appearance to keep customers.
I was frustrated with the WiFi, although it appeared to be constantly connected, I couldn't get on the Net when I wanted to.
The day we didn't go to the cinema we stayed in and watched a NCIS marathon; saw lots of shows I'd missed! But it was the ONLY clear channel. We could get only 4 more, full of static or just plain unclear. Next day, same thing, so E called the desk about it and sent a maintenance guy. He had no idea what it was, because there was no problem with any other TV in the hotel. They did offer to put is in another room, but we had just one day left and it would be more work than it was worth. We spent the day exploring the rest of the town.
The free breakfast, same menu every day. Biscuits and Gravy (not on my diet), greasy sausage patties (yuck), and rubbery disks of cooked egg - they call it an omelet - with a tasteless and gooey processed cheese in it (also not on my diet). The standard cereals in dispensers, the cheap-o version that tastes off. Fresh (kinda) bananas and apples; hot cinnamon rolls (sugary carbs!), the juicy was really watered down. Coffee & tea with only paper cups...I HATE tea in paper cups! We dumped it in the trash.
So we go to Denny's. We had to ask for clean flatware...E had a fork with something stuck in the tines. Their menu didn't have the lighter fare we generally order. We made do. Then halfway through his coffee, he found something in his mug. He went and asked for the manager to look at it, and told the guy about the necessity of cleanliness from the kitchen. The manager was shocked to look into the cup, said it should never have come out of the kitchen, and apologized. You'd think he'd take off a percentage of the meal, but no, so we didn't go back.
The next day we tried another restaurant were usually familiar with, but service wasn't so great there, nor the food.
Our usual favorite restaurant there was also a big disappointment. Service wasn't so great. I asked for a saucer for the tea bag, because there was literally no place to put it except on the tablecloth. I was totally ignored. I'd made my cup of tea (semi-weak strength) and dropped the bag into the hot water pitcher....it was really tepid, not hot. We got our meals. E said the spaghetti had plain tomato sauce in it - yuck! I ordered fish, it came without the sauce mentioned in the menu. I ate maybe half. But the carrots were good. The waiter didn't come back til he brought the bill and asked if we wanted dessert.... No way! He had an embarrassingly low tip.

So we drove around the town and discovered they've really built up the other end of the city.
We found another motel with a golf/pub atmosphere in a real dining room! Food was great there, and prices reasonable on the menu. Very promising should we ever decide to return there.

Nearby there was an upscale-looking Italian restaurant, which we had to try out. We love Italian. We agreed that their Minestrone soup was the best we've ever had. (Actually, it was closer to being a clear tomato base broth with veggies, no beans or pasta in it. But, oh, so good!). They had such selections on the menu I was surprised the prices were so reasonable... duck, among other things you see in very ritzy places! Yet it was the main dishes that were disappointing. I got a shrimp/asparagus/linguini plate, and I had to ask for no cheese in my dish. Sound good? It looked good but.. well, I couldn't identify a taste to the yellow broth it was all set into. Didn't expect broth. It did nothing for the dish. The shrimp was big and fat, but there was no flavor. E got the lobster ravioli, said the pink tomato sauce tasted like Campbell's tomato soup, and the ravioli was tasteless and nothing like what we had in another restaurant. Portions were more reasonable (smaller) than many restaurants, but we both left at least half and said we were done. Desserts....everything except the tiramadu cake was dairy based, and we don't care for that type of cake. I can't have cow dairy. So we went to Safeway bought fruits, a small cake, and bottles of lemonade to finish our evening.
That's another thing...the lemonade.... There is none offered in any restaurant or the cinema.

So, although we did enjoy our time together, relaxing, reading, or exploring the town.....
but have to admit, the town let us down. They've become careless, or care-less, for the most part.
I guess we will look for other places for future getaways.