Brian and I decided to beat the crowds and have Valentine's Dinner early. We were in the Indiana area already for my Cousin's babyshower, so we decided to cut out a little early from the shower so we could have a nice dinner togather, while my mom watched Aimee. What ended up happening was a truly memorable dining experience. So memorable in fact, that we had to write Leona's and tell them about it. For those of you that have never had the pleasure of Leona's. It's an amazing local chain here in Chicago that is well known for their service and for having a HUGE menu that includes lots of healthy, vegetarian, and organic foods.
Dear Leona's Restaurant,
We hate to complain, but our visit to your Cal City store was so unbelievable that we just can't keep quiet! We love your restuarant and don't get to visit frequently enough because we moved out to Aurora (where you HAVE to open a restaurant). We decided to celebrate V-Day early and drove 60 miles to my Mother's in Indiana for the free babysitting and to visit your Cal City store on Saturday, Feb. 10. We were looking forward to this for weeks, so when we arrived, we did not let the fact that the host stand was empty for over 10 minutes discourage us. The host was busy waiting on and bussing tables.
When we were finally seated, we witnessed a show unlike anything we've ever seen. The waitress made it known several times that besides the 4 tables in our section, she was also tending bar, so we'd just have to be patient. 20 minutes after we were seated, she took our order. 30 minutes later, the Manager came by and we asked him for the drinks we had ordered and never received. The waitress came back shortly after we got our drinks and admitted that she never put in our appetizer order, so she was just going to put our entire order in at once. The manager came out with our food about half an our later, but it was the wrong order. When we finally got the correct order on our table (everything at once) the waitress immediately gave us our check and declared that she was done with our section, she was going to another one. She stood over my shoulder as I completed the tip part of the receipt, reviewed the receipt at the table, and thanked us for the generous tip, (I was really afraid she'd freak out if we gave her what she really deserved!).
So let me tell you about the show she put on while all of this was happening. Over the course of the evening, she almost had a nervous breakdown. Out of the four tables she was waiting on, one left before dinner arrived. They asked her 3 times for a bill for the drinks, which she refused to bring until they got up and put their coats on. She yelled at them from across the section that their food was probably ready, she just hadn't gone to check.
She lost the check for the 2nd table. So she came and told them that it would be "like $32". When they refused to pay until they saw a bill, she made a scene and went back to the register to print a new one.
The 3rd table had not received their salads for over 45 minutes, so the waitress spent quite a lot of time screaming at a busboy from across the section of tables about bringing them their salads.
The fourth table was us, and well, you already know about that. She also walked around the section saying things like "Jesus Christ is messing with my tips tonight! How am I supposed to pay my rent?".
The manager was clearly overwhelmed, as he was trying to fill in service gaps throughout the entire restaurant. The restaurant ran out of silverwear by 8:30 pm.
My husband and I understand that every workplace has their "off day" and everyone deserves compassion. This letter is more to let you know that you really need to send in reinforcements. Maybe they need training, more employees, a therapist, or even a priest! I'm not kidding about the priest part. The last time I visited that restaurant location it was a steakhouse. A fight broke out in the kitchen that we could hear in the dining room. Dishes were breaking, and the waiter came out and told us that a cook and dishwasher had just walked out. We love Leonas. We'd drive 60 miles for you again. We just want to make sure that you are still there when we do!
Love, The Wroblewski's.
Was this too harsh?
1 comment:
Loved it. We get angry complaint letters all the time and most of the time I just laugh at them because people sound so ridiculous when mad. You however did not- valid point but light and funny.
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