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There seems to be mild suckage all over the place in this incident.
Twice a month Mom's nursing home takes some of the residents out to area restaurants for lunch. There are usually only between six and 10 on any given excursion, because many are in wheelchairs and that's quite a bit of maneuvering. They rent an accessible bus, which of course has to be booked: what time to pick up the participants at the nursing home, and equally importantly, when to arrive back at the restaurant to ferry them all back.
Mom has gone twice so far, the second time being today. Both times I've met them at the restaurant and had lunch with her.
The first time, at one of my favourite local restaurants, things went well.
This time, not so much (it was at a different restaurant -- well-known chain). I arrived late (surprise, surprise) and the others had already ordered. No problem for me; I had my own vehicle so wasn't constrained by their timeline, and I told the server this. She took my order and departed. Shortly afterwards, she and another server working the same area brought our drinks.
Then we waited. And waited. And waited.
Yes, it was the lunch hour but the restaurant was by no means full. There were large expanses of shining-clean EMPTY tables all over the place.
We had all ordered off the supposedly "quick lunch" menu and 20 minutes after I arrived, the others had yet to receive salads and/or soups. The staff member got up and went in search of the server to explain the situation vis a vis the bus. I think maybe somebody bunted the orders to the front of the line, because the salads and soups arrived shortly thereafter (including mine). The meals arrived at a respectable amount of time after that (e.g. everybody was finished with their starters). The 2nd server continued to help out.
At some point in here, the staff member said something to the 2nd server about how this was supposed to be the quick-serve menu, etcetera. She wasn't yelling or whining but she was obviously not happy. The server, who was still handing out platters, didn't respond. When she left, the staff member said to me, "I guess she didn't hear me." While I agreed that the service was problematic, I did point out that the servers have no real control over what's going on in the kitchen -- the best they can do is go back and let the kitchen staff know there's a time issue with a specific table or group.
About halfway through my lunch I stopped our server and asked for a second pot of tea. As I always do, I said, "No rush. Whenever you have a moment."
Never got it.
Between one thing and another, I don't think the nursing home is going to return to this place anytime soon. I certainly won't.
Twice a month Mom's nursing home takes some of the residents out to area restaurants for lunch. There are usually only between six and 10 on any given excursion, because many are in wheelchairs and that's quite a bit of maneuvering. They rent an accessible bus, which of course has to be booked: what time to pick up the participants at the nursing home, and equally importantly, when to arrive back at the restaurant to ferry them all back.
Mom has gone twice so far, the second time being today. Both times I've met them at the restaurant and had lunch with her.
The first time, at one of my favourite local restaurants, things went well.
This time, not so much (it was at a different restaurant -- well-known chain). I arrived late (surprise, surprise) and the others had already ordered. No problem for me; I had my own vehicle so wasn't constrained by their timeline, and I told the server this. She took my order and departed. Shortly afterwards, she and another server working the same area brought our drinks.
Then we waited. And waited. And waited.
Yes, it was the lunch hour but the restaurant was by no means full. There were large expanses of shining-clean EMPTY tables all over the place.
We had all ordered off the supposedly "quick lunch" menu and 20 minutes after I arrived, the others had yet to receive salads and/or soups. The staff member got up and went in search of the server to explain the situation vis a vis the bus. I think maybe somebody bunted the orders to the front of the line, because the salads and soups arrived shortly thereafter (including mine). The meals arrived at a respectable amount of time after that (e.g. everybody was finished with their starters). The 2nd server continued to help out.
At some point in here, the staff member said something to the 2nd server about how this was supposed to be the quick-serve menu, etcetera. She wasn't yelling or whining but she was obviously not happy. The server, who was still handing out platters, didn't respond. When she left, the staff member said to me, "I guess she didn't hear me." While I agreed that the service was problematic, I did point out that the servers have no real control over what's going on in the kitchen -- the best they can do is go back and let the kitchen staff know there's a time issue with a specific table or group.
About halfway through my lunch I stopped our server and asked for a second pot of tea. As I always do, I said, "No rush. Whenever you have a moment."
Never got it.
Between one thing and another, I don't think the nursing home is going to return to this place anytime soon. I certainly won't.
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