Bad Texas Roadhouse Experience With a Good Ending!

I’ve had a long, tiring day.  I only went to bed around midnight last night, and had to be awake at 6am this morning.  On top of only 6 hours of sleep (when I’m used to a minimum of 8 these days – I know that will change soon, so I get it while I can!), I didn’t sleep very well during those 6 hours.  I was up 3 or 4 times for the bathroom, and then I just never felt like I was in that deep, restful sleep in between bathroom trips.  My hips were bothering me as well, so I had to keep switching sides, even though neither of them were comfortable.  I had to be up at 6am to be at my parents house for their community yard sale.  I don’t have too much to sell, but I have a little, and their community yard sale is my best bet at selling.  So I spent a good portion of the day at the their house for the yard sale, ended up getting pretty sun baked on my arms, even though I was sitting under a tent more than I was in the sun (obviously no UV protection there!), then had to head off to a performance that the baton group was doing.  We had a fair share of issues for that, between members forgetting pieces they needed, or admitting a loss of certain pieces, and the rain that dampened us all – even though as of last night, there wasn’t supposed to be any rain today.  Once the show was over, my dad and I headed to pick up my mom and Hubby and go off to eat dinner…which brings me to my main posting…

My dad called ahead for their “Call Ahead Seating” while I changed out of my damp clothes and fixed my hair.  We were going to eat at Texas Roadhouse, because it’s one of my mom’s favorite places.  The hostess told my dad it would be approximately 40 minutes, and we got there at the 40 minute mark from the time he called.  We were given a pager and pushed to the side.  The place was absolutely, ridiculously packed!  We ended up having to wait even longer in the tent they had set up outside in the dreary, damp, chilly air.  We ended up waiting yet another hour after arriving, even though we called ahead.  Once we finally were seated, and placed our orders, the whole dinner went downhill even more.  To start, Hubby’s salad did not come out with the rest of ours, and my salad bowl looked like it had someone else’s dressing all over it, which was grossing me out.  So we asked a waiter to bring his salad, and take mine back for a redo.  Hubby’s salad was brought out in the meantime by someone else, so when mine came out, his second salad did as well.  We sent it back since no one needed a second salad, and immediately after Hubby received his salad, his dinner arrived.  Now he has 2 plates of food, and we’re still working on our salads.  Even after we were done with salads, the rest of the meals were still not coming out.  We finally got the waitress’ attention, and informed her of the issue.  Our dinners came out very quickly after that, however, my food had to go back yet again!  I ordered a steak medium well, but when I cut into the center, it was still bloody.  If I weren’t 8 months pregnant, I would have just eaten it, but since according to everything I’m reading, I should be ordering everything well done, I decided they needed to cook it more.  So, while I waited for my steak to eventually come back to me, I was at least able to eat my baked potato.  My steak finally arrives, now cooked to a good well done (still not how I ordered it, but at least better than bloody), and everyone else is near finished with eating their own meals.  We finally managed to complain to the marketing rep about the issues, and she said she would inform the service manager.

The service manager ended up coming to our table, and explained some of the issues.  Apparently we had such a long wait because people were celebrating Mother’s Day, as well as sitting around the restaurant, taking their time to watch the Kentucky Derby, and Texas Roadhouse was not quite prepared for this busy situation.  She said she would also talk to our waitress about placing the food orders, and was very understanding about my food issues.  She also said we should have been offered a free appetizer for our extremely long wait, and we had not been offered that at all.  So she apologized and told us she discounted our check for all the trouble (we only expected that my meal would be free, or we would just receive a coupon for a freebie appetizer on the next visit).  Here’s where the real redeeming comes in – the check for the 4 of us was supposed to be about $52 and some odd cents.  The amount we ended up paying was $24 and some odd cents.  She took a little over 50% off the entire bill!  She also told us if we ever had any other issues when we came there, we should definitely ask for her and she would take care of things.  She was very nice, and smoothed things over very well. 

So, will we go back again?  Yes, of course.  Will we ever go there on Mother’s Day weekend again?  Probably never.  At least they redeemed themselves on this visit with a very hefty discount!