Slow Service and Poor Pizza

November 25, 2011

in Odds & Ends Stories

About 4 years ago, to celebrate an occasion when I was in primary school, we went to a local pizza restaurant. We had been here several times before and we were satisfied with the service and food. But on this particular night, we were shocked with the service that we were provided with.

We had made a reservation prior knowing the place did get busy at times. We all packed in the car, and headed over to the restaurant looking forward to our meal.

When we arrived, the store was packed to the rafters. Every table that we saw was full. We had mentioned our reservation to the person at the front door and we sat down, waiting for our table. We had to wait for about ten
minutes until we got our table. A bit annoying, but we shook off the thought; we wanted tonight to be an enjoyable night.

After a few more minutes, the waiter came and took our orders. We ordered a jug of lemonade, three pizzas for us three kids, a schnitzel for my dad and some pasta for my mum.

Things started out well. We got our jug of lemonade first, which was followed by my parent’s meals. Seeing that my parent’s meals had arrived, I was expecting my big pizza soon.

But after thirty minutes, the time that it took last time we went to the restaurant to get our food, we still didn’t have any pizzas. We did give the staff a bit of grace knowing it was a busy night. We decided to be polite
and wait a bit longer.

Another 20 minutes went past. By this time my parents had already eaten their meals. My siblings and I were still hungry and we were salvaging the only thing that we had to cease our hunger: the jug of lemonade, which was almost empty.

My parents knew something was up, so my mother went up to one of the staff members, a teenage girl, and told her our problem. She said that she would “get it fixed.” Nothing else. By now we were very annoyed.

Another 20 minutes had passed, and my parents were very angry, and my brothers and I were becoming restless and annoyed. It had been an hour and ten minutes and we had still not received our pizzas, whilst everyone else around us did. My parents had almost done a dine and dash, but being the polite and well-mannered people they are they decided not to. My mother then got the attention again of the teenage girl, clearly stating that we had ordered our food over an hour ago and we were about to leave. The girl apologizes, says it will be ready soon and rushes back to the kitchen area.

It had been an hour and a half. We were relying on water to fill our stomachs now, the nine-dollar lemonade jug being drained long ago. The girl reappeared again, but this time with the three pizzas in her hands. We were happy that we finally got them, but were extremely annoyed that it took that long. Being very hungry and tired, we dug into the pizzas. But they just didn’t taste as good as I remembered it. It seemed like the chefs were in such a rush to get them to us that they just piled ingredients onto the pizzas without even thinking about quality.

After almost two hours, we were finished with our food, paid for our meals and requested that our pizzas be boxed up so we could take them home and eat them later. We were escorted out. But when we were walking back to the car, we realised that they never gave us the boxed up pizzas! Furious, we marched back up, told the staff, grabbed them and hastily made our way back to the car.

It has been 4 years now and that whole experience has left me with a bad impression of the restaurant. We usually leave tips, but we were so unimpressed with the quality of the food, the time that we were waiting, and the bad customer service we received, that we left no tip. It would have even been fine if the waiter had come up to us, told us the pizzas were coming late, and asked my parents if they would like their meals served with ours. That would have been a bit more pleasant, if we were told what was going on. If I had to go back to that day, I would have told my parents that I just wanted to go to the fast food place across the street. Looking back now, I believe that doing that would have been more enjoyable than waiting one and a half hours on a pizza.

– Ramsay

{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }

paaltjes November 26, 2011 at 4:41 pm

If the food was so bad why did you take the pizzas home?

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sexygal April 29, 2014 at 4:52 pm

that's what I was wondering too. Guess "great minds" think alike!!

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Jill December 28, 2018 at 9:08 am

Because they paid for them. If I paid for something then I'm eating it lol

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Ramsay November 26, 2011 at 6:41 pm

We did spend a fair bit of money on the food which we didn't want to waste, so we decided to take them home. We usually do this with any pizza place we go to. Note that I said that they weren't as good as I remembered, but not horrible either.

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Aaron December 2, 2011 at 1:42 pm

Pretty boring.

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Jack December 27, 2011 at 5:39 pm

Had you or your parents ever eaten out before? Does either your mother or your father have a spine? Do you any of you have a pulse? Are any of you smarter than an oyster?

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Cat_M December 30, 2011 at 5:04 pm

I think it's incredibly rude that your parents ate without inquiring about their children's food. Also they sat there and waited and waited without getting up and finding out what is going on. Then FINALLY getting a servers attention to ask about the food. And why were you all angry because you forgot to take your leftovers with you? At least my parents always had my back.

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Guest January 1, 2012 at 10:25 am

From working in a restaurant I must say this can happen every now and then especially during busy times. Things can go wrong – running out of ingredients, equipment not working, human error. However customers must understand that the kitchen does give 100% in getting the food out in time; we aren't making you wait on purpose and there are times where you must be patient.

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Kara March 20, 2012 at 5:16 am

Normally I'd be on your side and I do feel for you a bit….But…. these were people who had made a reservation. I shouldn't have to remind people – especially one who claims that they work in the food service industry – that it means they had had this meal time planned, in advance. So their needs should've come first. No matter how busy the place was anybody who was there on "reservation" status should be served first…no, the kitchen is not giving it a "hundred percent" making sure to get food out on time if they are letting other orders go out first when they should be making sure that the people who booked a spot gets their food as quickly as possible. I see this as a case where both the staff and the customers made mistakes and things should've been talked out…things probably would've gone smoother if certain mistakes hadn't of been made and if the family would've just SPOKEN UP sooner and in a firm but polite manner. On the staff side apparently the family wasn't given the quality service they deserved. On the family side they should've spoken up much sooner, tried their best to keep a cool head, ect. If this had been me and my family….I would've been a little upset with my parents for not at least offering to get me a snack or to share their meals / bites from their meals or something when it became apparent that the pizza wasn't coming any time soon.

"Jack" is just rude and out of line on here. Same for "Aaron".

I agree, Ramsay….the waiters should've spoken up and been apologetic about the delay.

"I am pretty sure that my parents inquired many times about the meal" If that's true, then sorry for saying that your parents should've spoken up sooner. I don't know how many times your parents asked about the situation with the food or if they shared their meal with you but when it seemed like they didn't from your earlier post it made me a little annoyed. Regardless, shame you had a bad experience from that place. Your family really should've been treated been better and not have made to wait , your needs should've come first not whoever just came in off the street that day.

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Ramsay March 26, 2012 at 3:50 am

Finally – A good, constructive comment that agrees with my story! Thanks Kara 🙂
I do recall they did share a few bites of their meal, they aren't mean or anything 😛

I really don't remember how many times they did ask about it, but I am sure they did a few times – luckily we have never been in a situation where we have had to ask where our meal was again.

Thanks again for your *pleasant* comment, unlike some RUDE people on here.

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Ramsay January 7, 2012 at 1:25 am

Hey Cat_M – This was a while ago and I only really remember the details that I have included in the story – nothing much else. Also, we didn't consider it rude – we were fine with it, we thought it would only be a matter of time until our meals came – obviously not. I am pretty sure that my parents inquired many times about the meal – This story however is from MY perspective, not my parents, and I was 12 at the time.

to Jack – YES we have eaten out before, and YES we are smarter than oysters thank you very much. If you want to know more about the story you can ask my parents.

Guest – I understand this, I just think that It would have been polite for the waiters to tell us about the problem. I work out front sometimes at a fast food place and I always tell my customers if there is a delay and what the cause is.

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Amber May 11, 2016 at 9:34 am

Getting annoyed at a 10 minute wait? Entitled much? Even with a reservation you can expect a reasonable wait on a busy night, restaurants cannot force customers to finish up and leave faster simply to accommodate a reservation. All reservations do is put you at the top of the wait list for those waiting to be seated.

It was busy, you could clearly see that all tables were filled, the kitchen was likely backed up and that's not the server's fault. Neither is it anyone's fault that you forgot to grab your boxed up pizzas. Your parents should have mentioned something about the pizzas long before they did, you don't wait an hour after some of the food for your table comes out before you ask about the remaining meals.

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