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| - Rachel Ray says if you see a restaurant with a line, it's a good sign the food is good. Restaurants know this too and I think often they create a false perception by making people wait. When a customer walks in, sees a full lobby, and is given a short wait the expectations are increased. When I arrived I noticed the parking lot was not that full. Multiple parking places up front and on each side. I walked in to see 5 people waiting; I gave my name (table for 1) and was told maybe 3 minutes. A couple of other people came in behind me and were added to the list. As I looked around between the row of tables on the right side of the restaurant, the main dining section, and the area on the left there were 8 empty tables I could see, plus half of the bar was empty. So what's with the wait? My 3 minutes turned into closer to 10.
The hostess sat me at a table and said the server would be right with me. A few minutes later and he wasn't there yet, so she came back and took my drink order. She returned (still no server) and she asked if I was ready to order. I asked about the soup and she had to check (which is fine since she isn't a server and doesn't need to know what the soup of the day is currently). I ordered the soup and a salad - which normally would be the $6.99 lunch special, but only until 3pm. Finally the server showed up with the soup and he said he thought the salad was almost finished. It's a salad - the smallest one of the menu and shouldn't take that long. The soup and salad are also on the 13 minute lunch menu so it should be quick. He returned one other time with a refill on the drink
I finished the soup and salad, yet the server was not around. The empty plates and drink cups sat there for nearly 10 minutes. He when he came back I asked for the check and it was another wait. All in all it was an hour dining experience for a cup of soup and a small salad. As I left, the lobby was full with people waiting for a table - but once again there were several open tables.
It wasn't that busy, especially for a Saturday night, yet the lobby was full when there were plenty of seats available and the server was very slow. The one redeeming factor was that it wasn't karaoke night. That usually is a horrible experience.
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