I really wish I had been able to video this experience. We arrived on a Friday night, knowing that…read morethey have an all you can eat fish on Fridays. The first clue should've been that when we arrived at 6:30 PM, there were eight people in the restaurant. Now I have been to this location many times in the past, but not recently.
We were seated near the opening to the kitchen, which was about 4 feet wide and about 5 feet from where I was so I could hear things going on. For example, "86 the noodles, they look nasty."
We were waited on by a young, extremely inexperienced server
I'll probably needed to shadow somebody for a little longer than he did.
He asked if we wanted something to drink and we ordered two diet Pepsi's, he returned with them and wanted to know if we were ready to order. I told him we need a few minutes.
27 minutes later, I signal to the other server on the floor to please find where our server may have gone. He entered the kitchen area and called over to him, asking him if he forgot his customers.
Meanwhile, the people at the next table were having their own issues. A table of three and one order was a breakfast dish, which apparently included pancakes that didn't get brought to the table. He may still be waiting.
A man ordered a sandwich as a wrap and they brought it out on toast. He said I asked for a wrap and he was told that they don't have wraps.
Well, it's on the menu! So a second server came over to help our inexperienced server and ask them if they wanted a tortilla or lettuce wrap." I want a tortilla wrap, "said the man. Well, 15 minutes later they brought out a lettuce wrap. So we weren't the only ones.
When the young man came back to take our orders, we ordered a cod sandwich with fries and coleslaw, I ordered some green chili and I asked whether the AYCE fish or the fish n chips with cod was the better fish. He explained that the all you can eat fish had a special batter that they put on it and it was really the better fish so I ordered the all you can eat.
About 15 minutes later, he came out to apologize and tell me that they ran out of batter for the all you could eat fish so I'd have to have the cod instead, but not all you can eat. And then he amazingly said that the cod was the better fish, the exact opposite of what he had told me less than an hour earlier.
The fish wasn't bad, the "seasoned fries," didn't even have salt on them. And if you were looking for a freshly hand, cut fries, try another location. These were crinkle cut, obviously frozen, and tasteless..
Meanwhile, the people at the other table try for 30 minutes to get refills on their sodas to no avail.
So when the check was placed down without comment, I looked at it and saw that I was still being charged for all you can eat.
I called over the Young man and asked him if he could possibly fix that since I didn't get to eat that. "I think I can change it in my computer."
Finally, we left and went upfront to pay and saw the 18% service fee. The cashier read me my total and a screen came up to ask me if I wanted to add an additional tip. Truthfully, I didn't want to pay any tip because it really wasn't deserved. But I know everybody can have a bad day and I'm afraid this young man may have a few coming up. But I do wish him well. I know it's a very difficult business, but it's not that hard when there's only eight people in the restaurant and there are two servers.
I will say the restaurant was pretty clean, of course, when nobody comes in they can't make it very dirty can they?
I thought about making this a one star, but the fish was OK. And I did have a bowl of green chili that was more of a soup but I did like the heat. But two stars is as far as I can go on this one.
And the most telling thing of all, for a place known for their pies, not only that he asked us if we wanted a slice of pie, but the display case is upfront that can hold 30 pies had perhaps six in there. I think we're getting close to the end of this location.