Now that I have had time to reflect...

I will share my story of utter dunces at a restaurant. First there are a few things you must know:

1. I like booze, so when I go out to eat, I drink it.
2. I am not a fussy or picky eater. If I asked for my salad without tomatoes and it you brought it with.... I am going to save myself the headache of having them remake it (and probably spit in it) and just pick them out of my salad.
3. I don't super customize my order. Generally I order as it appears on the menu and maybe get a side of sauce to compliment what I am eating.
4. I tip well, I am not a chintzy person. I KNOW where I live these servers make their living primarily off of tips.

So with all of that shared I will now tell the tale of the WORST dining experience in my life. (Okay maybe one of the top worse... the other was breakfast and my coffee cup had lipstick on it. The waitress wiped it off with her apron and called it "fixed". But I digress and that's a whole other story for another time.)



My father-in-law was in town for the Christmas holidays and one of the things he likes to do is take us out to eat and have a nice conversation over dinner. His choice of restaurant was Original Roadhouse Grill in Santa Maria; I have been there before. The service is lacking at best and the food is fair; not a choice of mine when I want to enjoy a steak house. I live in Santa Maria, we are famous for our Santa Maria Style BBQ so I KNOW where to go for good food. It is NOT the Original Roadhouse Grill.

We get to the place and they bring out the menus and explain that they have new items on the menu. So, for my drink I ordered something called Cosmic Grape from their new menu that they prominently featured and talked about before leaving us to make our decisions. Our waiter returns with the other 2 drinks and advises me that they are out of raspberry liquor so they can't make my drink. I am okay with that, I pick the next item on the menu, an Oregon Bulldog, which I made sure to look that it did not call for raspberry liquor. He leaves and I figure in a few more minutes they will bring out my drink and take my dinner order.

So after a few moments the bartender (not our server) comes to our table and says they are missing RASPBERRY LIQUOR for my drink. I advised her that my drink order did not require it. She then asked what I ordered; Oregon Bulldog was my polite response. She then asks me what an Oregon Bulldog is!!! What the hell, it's the featured drink on your menu here! Okay lady, never mind the froo froo drink. I will just have a Cosmo. As she leaves I am annoyed that they show us their menu and talk about the items at length and then don't know what I am talking about when I order my drink. Fuck! So my father-in-law said it's okay if you don't like it you can send it back. I told him it's fine, you can't fuck up a Cosmo. Boy, was I wrong.

While my awesome drink is getting made we order our dinner. My father-in-law orders the BBQ Chicken and Baby Back Ribs Combo with a side salad. For his salad he asked for Thousand Island dressing on the side (he is watching his weight). They arrive with his salad (I am still waiting for my drink) and his salad is in an ocean of Thousand Island. He starts in eating his salad and doesn't say a word. I figure why make a stink, just eat the damn thing.... that's what I would have done. So I assume he is doing the same, figures what the hell it's a salad how bad can it be with dressing. So they finally bring my drink and the server obviously is not used to martini glasses because he was walking 2 feet every 20 minutes it seemed. AND my glass was half full when he got it too me and his hands were soaking wet. It looks slightly pink for a Cosmo, so I thought maybe they made a stiff drink. No. Not at all. It's light pink with hints of Cranberry and maybe they rinsed the glass in vodka... maybe. Whatever. I drank it, I was done messing with the wait staff being imbeciles. In my mind, the waiter spilled my drink and then half way to the table topped it off with water at the fountain drink station nearest our table. Did I mention my drink was warm? Well it was.

Here comes the best part; the dinner. They brought my father-in-law the WRONG dinner!!!! He didn't get chicken and ribs like he ordered, he got a half a chicken. He got his plate and just dug in. At this point I wasn't sure if he just didn't care by now or if he maybe forgot what he ordered. I am leaning towards the latter, he is older and is a forgetful at times. So I just ate my dinner, which coincidentally was the same thing he had ordered but they got mine right. After dinner when we were on our way home my husband was commenting on how bad the service was. I asked him if he noticed they brought his dad the wrong dinner. He said he thought it was wrong but since his dad didn't mention it, he didn't either.

Since my pop-in-law took us out we didn't have to settle the bill but god damn it they would have known how bad they were based on what I didn't leave for a tip. I know this story makes me probably sound like those dumb bitches that are way too high maintenance for their own good... and the good of the people around them but that is not the case. I actually am pretty mellow to go out to eat with. I don't mind long waits, I just expect good customer service and knowledgeable staff. So they probably ended up getting a tip, I don't know I didn't ask; it's bad form. I hope so bad that next time he comes to town we can suggest a place that is nicer, has better food and even priced better.

This horrible night was December 28th, 2011.