Over the years, I've eaten at Billy Bob's 20 or 25 times. It's close to my house, offers great food without being overly fancy, and has always had good service. The last 2 times we were there, we were disappointed with our overall experiences, but not disappointed enough to complain about it. It was just "meh."
Tonight we decided to try it again, and it will be the last time. I will not be back. We started with breads, and I asked the busboy if he could get me some butter that was softened, because I could not get my knife through the frozen butter in front of me to spread it on my bread. He said, "no problem" and that's the last I saw him until he dropped desserts on our table an hour later.
We ordered salads. We both requested that the salads be tossed, and again, we were told, "no problem." She dropped the salads at our table a bit later, and they were ranch soup with some wilted lettuce and croutons floating in it - they clearly had not been tossed - just drenched in dressing. Next came the French onion soup, which was burned. The cheese on top was blackened, and yet the waitress sat it on our table anyway. I tried. I really tried to stomach it, but they burned the cheese so bad it burned the onions under it. It took me 5 tries and almost 15 minutes before I could flag the waitress down and have her replace it.
When our entrees came, the garlic potatoes were more garlic and salt than they were potatoes, the prime rib was bubble gum chewy, and the vegetables were somehow both wilted and crunchy. It was one of the worst meals I've had in a long time.
We opted to try dessert as we were both still a little hungry, so we ordered a crème brulée. I LOVE crème brulée, and Billy Bob has great crème brulée - or at least they did until today. The brulée was blackened, which created a smoky flavor in the crème, and the texture was more of a pudding than a light airy crème dessert. It was overcooked by almost double.
As we were trying to eat the dessert and picking the most offensive of the burned crust from the top, the manager walked by. "You are picking off the best part." I informed her that we both love brulée, but this one is burned pretty bad and overcooked, and then informed her of the other problems we had with our meal.
Her reply was, "Oh, that sucks. I'll have to see who is making them today," and then she walked off. No apology, no offer to replace it, no offer to take it off the bill...nothing. I understand that mistakes happen in the restaurant industry. We are all human. But to be a restaurant manager, be informed by a guest that their meal and dessert were sub-par (in parts inedible), and then just walk off with a "That sucks?" Yes. It does suck. It sucks to pay $60 or $70 for food that you cannot eat - with service that is worse than Denny's. It sucks for you that you will not get any more of my business...because despite years of great meals, you are now destroying your reputation, and driving your customers away.