A Day in Chains

  Friday was chain food hell for me!
 
    Friday , three of us went on a shopping trip to a large area mall.   The only non chain restaurant was an Italian  restaurant which my daughter in law did not feel in the mood for so we finally settled on Chevy Chase.  It was noon and the place was mobbed.  All three of us selected the chicken quesadilla and tortilla  soup lunch special.
 
The salsa was excellent; very smoky flavored and the chips were nice and fresh.  Our meals arrived and I tasted my soup.  It was not even at room temperature and so we called the waitress over and explained that we would like our soup hot.   Se came back shortly with the soup; we tasted again and the soup was now a delightful lukewarm. 
 
  I told her that I wanted it hot and she very carefully explained that their policy was not to serve it too warm as they did not want their customers to get burned.  I told her that I would be glad to sign a wavier or anything else that they requested; just bring the soup at proper temperature.  She told me that she would see what she could do so I smiled nicely and told her she could take it away as it seemed such a problem.  She shrugged her shoulders and took it away.  The other two just left their soup and  ate the quesadillas which were fine but  there was an additional charge for anything that you might want on them such as  $1.00 extra for sour cream and  $1.50 for guacamole.   She came by and asked if we wanted dessert and we told her that we would just finish our drinks  and take the check. 
 
She then picked up the napkins and straw wrappers off the table and her words were  "I am just going to clean this crud up for you."  A perfect ending to our lunch!  I was grateful that I had elected to have a Margarita; it  helped take some of the pain away.
 
  Now it is off to  dinner and  to  (gasp) Red Lobster we go.  This grand event was the 9 year old grandson's birthday party and I had to go along to help supervise the kids.  My daughter in law and I had  five  9 and 10 year old boys  and  the  7 year old sister in tow.  I should hasten to explain that we were going here as the birthday kid decided that he wanted turf and surf and she thought this might be an affordable place.
 
We arrived to as packed waiting area  (who can believe) and told that we would have a 20 minute wait.  Surprisingly enough, the kids enjoyed themselves by watching all the lobsters in the circular tank.  I amused  myself by counting the number of men who decided that baseball caps looked  great and wore them all evening long.
 
We were seated within 15 minutes and a very pleasant server handed us our menus and took drink orders.  We waited and waited and waited.  After 25 minutes of waiting for even something to drink,  I signaled down a passing  hostess and told her.  Almost immediate, a manager came over and  started questioning us as to how long it took for a server to come to  table and how long we had been waiting for drinks.  I informed her that I did not write anything down and all I knew is that we had been sitting for 30 minutes without even a glass of water. She was very apologia and our drink is soon arrived and our server took our order.  My grandson ordered his surf and turf    which was about  $27.00.  Thankfully, all of his buddies  ordered  the  crab legs off the  kiddy menu which were  $8.99.  I settled for a bowl of shrimp bisque.
 
The children were all well behaved and loved their food.  Daughter in law  was happy with her  scallop and shrimp dish and I  just ordered another glass of wine.  The manager came over with our bill at end of meal and said again, how sorry she was.  They took  $20.51  off our bill.  It was listed as  a family acre discount, I  believe.
 
This was one hellish day of dining      .  I would have rather gone to McDonald's for both meals and saved some money.           

 
 

You went to a restaurant named Chevy Chase?

Greymo, you deserve the grandmother of the year award.   Sorry it wasn't the best day for you, but you did make me laugh with the baseball caps line. 

Oops..............................mistaste.  We went to Chevy Tex .

Greymo,
 
I had to smile at your complaint about the cold soup you were served.  One constant memory of my childhood was my father sending back cold soup when we would eat at a family type eatery.  Dad has been gone now for more than forty years so it happened long before all the recent concern about lawsuits, etc.  I think it was just carelessness.
 
Did Red Lobster serve the bisque properly heated?
 
 
 
 

Sorry to hear about that kind of day.  It must have been excruciatingly painful if McDonald's seemed like a good alternative.  I also think the comment about men in baseball caps was hilarious.

I had a similar "waiting for service" experience at an upscale restaurant in Greensboro, NC. Ironically, to this case, we went to Red Lobster and had a fine meal.

As it were, we were dressed for fine dining following my wife's graduation from graduate school, so we were grossly overdressed for Red Lobster.

The staff was excellent, the food had positives and negatives (too much butter in my shrimp dish, but excellent baked fish for my wife).

Based on your description, I think Red Lobster did a fine job rectifying your situation. The manager apologized, as you say, "almost immediate[ly]" after becoming aware of the infraction and apologized. The meal seemed to go fine from there, you got buzzed, got a nice discount (enough that the $27 surf and turf entree your grandson ordered was less expensive than those kiddy meals his friends ordered) and the manager apologized again at the end.

Aside from the long wait at the table, and the men you couldn't keep your eyes away from, I'd say Red Lobster ended up significantly better than "hell."



Now, I don't know anything about Chevy Tex, at all. I've never been, never even heard of it. (I could "google" it, but based on your view, it isn't worth the search time) But I will say, although the language may have been too common for the type of establishment or atmosphere they intended to present, I know a few roadfood establishments where that would be perfectly acceptable. On the other hand, they didn't misuse highfalutin' words either. So, pick your poison.

It's Chevy's Fresh Mex.

http://www.chevys.com/
 
No hot soup, no rare meat... it's the corporate lawyers in the kitchen practicing self-defence. 

Luckily, in DC, we have a great Tex Mex joint called Cactus Cantina. All fresh, and tasty, great service, excellent margaritas.


After seeing Chevy's menu (thanks MiamiDon), I'm thinking of their new slogan: "Sizzlin Fajitas, cold soup." It almost has a nice ring to it.

Born in OKC

My soup was warm enough for me to enjoy. 
 
Buffetbuster

The last time that I went to a  Red Lobster was 7 years ago last month for oldest grandaughter's 5th birthday.  She wanted a whole lobster  so off we went.  I ordered lobster, too.  When I went to break off the first claw, so much water came out that it filled my plate.  I swore that I would never go there again.  It was a Sunday afternoon and we listened to at least  6  "Happy Birthdays" at different tables.  Of course my granddaughter thought that they were all for her.

Scoremaker

The food was fine except for grandaughter's macaroni and cheese.  She said it  tasted like  old chesse-flavored chewing gum.  What annoyed me 
was the fact that this manager did not really oversee as she should have been doing.  It appeared that our server had too many tables. 

Furthermore, I do not like spending my money in big box chains when so many restaurants in our area have gone out of business.  So yes, my day was hellish for dining.

Greymo



Scoremaker

The food was fine ...

 
 
We have a person on here whose handle is "scoremaker?"
 
I wonder if s/he's a composer?

And the score is:

     Scorereader  1
     Scoremaker   0

ROFLOL     Sorry Scorereader

Scorereader

Greymo



Scoremaker

The food was fine ...

 
 
We have a person on here whose handle is "scoremaker?"
 
I wonder if s/he's a composer?

 
Scoremaker is a decomposer.

Born in OKC


Greymo,
 
I had to smile at your complaint about the cold soup you were served.  One constant memory of my childhood was my father sending back cold soup when we would eat at a family type eatery.  Dad has been gone now for more than forty years so it happened long before all the recent concern about lawsuits, etc.  I think it was just carelessness.
 
Did Red Lobster serve the bisque properly heated?
 
 
 
 

So the soup came back from the kitchen luke warm? Ewww, no thanks.

Scorereader


Luckily, in DC, we have a great Tex Mex joint called Cactus Cantina. All fresh, and tasty, great service, excellent margaritas.


After seeing Chevy's menu (thanks MiamiDon), I'm thinking of their new slogan: "Sizzlin Fajitas, cold soup." It almost has a nice ring to it.

Hey Scorereader,
Have you tried Guapo's?  and if so, which one did you like better, Cactus Cantina or Guapos?  Give me your honest opinion.

IntelligentT82

Scorereader


Luckily, in DC, we have a great Tex Mex joint called Cactus Cantina. All fresh, and tasty, great service, excellent margaritas.


After seeing Chevy's menu (thanks MiamiDon), I'm thinking of their new slogan: "Sizzlin Fajitas, cold soup." It almost has a nice ring to it.

Hey Scorereader,
Have you tried Guapo's?  and if so, which one did you like better, Cactus Cantina or Guapos?  Give me your honest opinion.

Well, there's a couple Guapo's. I'm assuming you mean the one in Tenleytown.
I haven't been to Guapo's in a while. I really enjoyed Guapos. It's very good Mexican food.
 
I moved to Cap Hill area in 2005 and don't get over to NW DC so much, so when we do go over there,  we tend to go to Cactus Cantina (if we're not going to our old haunt: Kavanagh's Pizza Pub - formerly Faccia Luna).
 
Before moving, I probably could've done a check list of items which were better at one versus the other. But, there's a fresher taste a Cactus Cantina that I enjoy. That's not to say Guapos isn't fresh, I think Cactus Cantina uses more citrus (like lime) and cillantro. So the flavor palette is different.
 
On The Hill, we have a family of great mexican restaurants - La Lomida, La Lomida Dos, and La Loma that are each as good (if not better) as Guapos. So, I wouldn't cross town for Guapos, where with the more unique Texican style at Cactus Cantina I have crossed town just for that.
 
And to add to my waffling on which one is better, if one was speaking purely about "authentic" mexican, Guapo's takes the lead over the Cantina - but as I said, with the great mexican restaurants right here, I'm not crossing town for Guapos. But, if someone went to Guapos, they'd enjoy it very much.