'I walked out of a restaurant when my order was 'almost ready.' Am I overreacting?'
"I walked out of a restaurant when my order was 'almost ready.' Am I overreacting?"
This happened about two months ago. It was after a concert at about 1am. We went to Denny's which was right next to the hotel. The restaurant had a manager, 4 servers, and at least 3 people that I could count working in the kitchen cooking, and a 1 busser.
There was only 2 tables seated in the whole restaurant, and about 4 parties waiting to be sat. After about 30 minutes of waiting and no one had approached the front of the restaurant, 3 out of the 4 parties left. Finally they approached and sat us down. (me, my wife, my mother in law, and my child).
We got our drinks rather promptly, and placed our orders. After about 20 more minutes I started noticing the other 2 tables that were seated had not been served any food, and the entire staff was just fighting, and cussing at each other.
About 10 minutes later, I see my plate in the order window. About 20 minutes later, they still had not brought my plate and I didn't see any of the other plates getting finished. 1 of the 2 seated tables got up and walked out. I waited another 10 minutes, no drink refills, no status updates, and my plate was still waiting in the pickup window.
At this time I got up and approached a waitress and said "we are just going to pay for our drinks and leave. We have been here over and hour and y'all have failed to get a single plate out the kitchen. Possibly the worst restaurant staff I have ever witnessed." The waitress said "one moment. you all's food is about to come out" and I said "I doubt it. I'm just going to pay for the drinks."
She said "ok well you don't have to be rude about it." and I said "I don't think I was being rude, but you all should do your job instead of just fighting with each other the whole night." So AITA?
Later, OP added some notes for context:
1) It was the first day of a two week vacation trip. first stop was five hours north of where we live. my son slept most of the five hour drive. He isn't normally up at that time. His normal bedtime is 9:30.
2) My son stayed at the hotel with my MIL while me and my wife went to the concert. The venue was within walking distance of the hotel. Denny's was in the parking lot of the hotel.
3) I thought son was going to be asleep when got back but he ran and hugged me asking me to go to Dennys when I walked in the door.
4) I did not expect bad service, because where I am from even 24 hour restaurants give good service. I am not from a big city. I did not realize this was the norm for 24 hour restaurants in big cities. It has been about 15 years since I had been to a denny's in a big city. years ago they were good as i frequented them late at night many times.
5) I've never used uber eats/door dash. I've only ever ordered pizza delivered a handful of times in my life and I always feel guilty. I have weird hangups for some reason about delivery food only being for rich people. I'm working on that.
Here's what people had to say to OP:
1MSFN said:
You waited way longer then I would have.
Confidentxgirl said:
That entire situation sounds like a complete disaster. You are absolutely not the ahole for leaving a restaurant after that kind of experience. Waiting for over an hour when the staff is visibly dysfunctional and other tables are not being served shows a complete failure of service.
The waitress telling you not to be rude when you are paying for the drinks after all that chaos is truly ridiculous. You were entirely reasonable to leave after waiting that long especially since your food sat in the pickup window unattended.
DasBarenJager said:
NTA. I have worked in a kitchen where a chef and a prep cook will literally screaming threats at each other and food was still coming out on time.
AuraNinia said:
NTA. You watched your food die of old age in the window while the staff had a Jerry Springer episode. An hour with zero service and then she calls YOU rude? That's wild. You showed more patience than that place deserved.
Suitable_Low1549 said:
NTA, I used to work at a Denny's. They have a 10-minute turnaround time on cook times; they were having a bad night.
Alive_Double_4148 said:
It’s Denny’s at 1am. You need to adjust your expectations.