On Saturday, October 18, 2014, we had our annual family trip to Noggins Corn Maze in Greenwich. We had a great family day and when the day was coming to a close, we decided to go to Boston Pizza in New Minas for dinner. My husband and I arrived at the restaurant first and let them know that we needed a table for 16 + 1 high chair. Our group was 9 adults, 8 kids.
The front of the house quickly organized a table to seat us and when the rest of the group arrived, the table was ready. We were seated, provided with menus, and had our drink order taken. Our order was taken by the Assistant General Manager and she had this very organized order-taking system that clearly laid out where each of us was sitting and what we ordered. And that's about where the organization stopped.
We waited about an hour for our food to arrive, which meant that we had EIGHT children all under the age of 10 at the table getting restless. When the food finally did arrive, we were shocked.
I will admit that I was only able to see half of the table's food as I was seated at one end, but from what I saw, I think the kitchen only got one plate right.
My son's pizza hotdogs came out all shriveled, indicating they had been under a warmer for a long time. The pizza dough part of them was so overcooked that I couldn't even give it to him. One of the pizza dogs wasn't even wrapped in the dough - it was just sitting there. And to top it off, his fries were cold. My son may only be 15 months old, but I assure you that he prefers his food to be at least warm. He proved this by breaking up his fries and throwing them on the floor. My husband's fries were cold, as was the bacon on his burger.
I ordered the chicken tacos with a side caesar salad and was brought a plate of shrimp tacos, which I sent back. I then got the chicken tacos with fries. One nice server then brought me a side caesar. The chicken on my tacos was also cold. Not even warm - just cold. I had to send back my plate and have them warm up the chicken again. They even re-warmed the fries that I didn't order. Thankfully, once the kitchen was able to get my order right, despite there not even being a single modification to it, it was actually good.
Next, my nephew's pasta had been sitting under a warmer for a long time as it was crusty on the top. My other nephew and my niece had ordered pizza and when they got theirs, it was burnt and obviously had again, been sitting under that darn warmer for way too long. My mother got whole wheat pasta when she didn't request it and then the server said that the only type of linguine they have is whole wheat. She then blamed the Assistant Manager for not telling mom this. I'm not really sure, but I don't think that blaming your boss is the right response to a customer complaint.
Next, my sister-in-law's son's garlic fingers were made as a cheese pizza instead. This kid doesn't like pizza so they had to send that back and wait for this garlic fingers. My sister's BBQ chicken flatbread was so overcooked that she couldn't eat most of it. They forgot to give my brother-in-law half of the food he ordered. One of the kids at the table didn't get their kids meal so they had to tell the kitchen to make it.
We sent complaints through waitresses who were trying so hard to make up excuses to cover for the kitchen. We were promised the manager would come to our table. At one point, the Assistant Manager was so busy bringing plates back to the kitchen that she didn't seem to have time to even handle customer complaints. The entire restaurant was a disaster.
I watched as the doorway filled with people waiting. No one was being told there would be a wait. One table behind us filled and emptied 3 times between the time we ordered and got our food. I watched half the plates that were brought out be brought back to the kitchen. I watched multiple people leave the restaurant unhappy. I watched people request the manager to complain. I watched as the Assistant Manager seemed flustered by the restaurant's disorganization.
Our table had most of our meals comp'd by the restaurant. We all got a 15% discount and the kids meals were all free. On top of that, we didn't leave any tips. The restaurant had so much potential from our table yet lost money on us due to their disorganization and inability to uphold Boston Pizza's standards. I'm not sure about the rest of the customers they had in there that night, but I can guarantee you that the 5 families that were at our table will not be returning to this restaurant.
Oh, the kid that was waiting for his meal because it hadn't been made? Yeah, it never came. He ate off the plates of the adults sitting next to him. read more
