Customer Rant?

I ran into the waiterrant blog a few weeks ago and read the whole thing! Considering Ed and I eat out almost every night, it's interesting to hear what goes on behind the waiter's smile and accommodating attitude. But what about the customer???

I've seen firsthand how rude customers can be, but I've also experienced bad service. I think we need a customerrant! I doubt I'll be that blogger, but a dining experience last night was worthy of ranting about...

We found ourselves in Plainfield looking for food. Ed and I have driven past Main St several times, noting the cute restaurant called Baci's that looks like a church. So, we decided to give it a try.

We had no idea what to expect, so we opened the doors, walked through the arched doorway, and were greeted by an 18 year old host dressed in a heavy metal t-shirt. Mmm... Okay, well, perhaps they're understaffed, I thought.

We were shown to a very private U-shaped booth that'd seat up to 6 people. On the wall was an adjustment knob for the music volume and a slider to adjust the lighting. Nice touch! The rest of the ambiance was... well, not great, but it's an old church, so what would you expect? It's kindof lodge-looking with wood paneling everywhere. It looks like they've got room upstairs and in the basement for parties or other gatherings. The bathrooms are in the basement, which might be a problem for those with mobility issues, but then again I think the only entrance had stairs too -I'm not sure.

Looking over the menu, there was the usual fair. Pizza and pasta mostly, but the choices were good -vodka sauces, gnocci, chicken, veal... You can even get pesto sauce on your pizza, which I'd love to try! The prices were high considering the ambiance, but were about right for the quaility of the food... once we got it...

Now, usually we're indecisive and have to ask servers to come back for our order, but last night we were waiting and waiting to put our drink order in. ...it didn't look like they were overstaffed at all and the place was far from mobbed, so we had no idea what the problem was.

When our waitress finally made it around to our table, we put our drink orders in and ordered our food at the same time. Once again we had to wait awhile for our drinks, but they came with bread and roasted garlic, so -cool! We downed the bread and our drinks and waited for refills. Refills took forever! While waiting we witnessed our waitress arguing with a customer over whether they said no onions on their appetizer. She swears she wrote it down right, the kitchen must have screwed it up. -Whatever, just fix it -it wasn't drawn out, but it was an indication she was having problems with more than just our table...

Finally she came around to get Ed a refill on his diet, no ice. Now, it's not unusual for servers to get the 'no ice' wrong on the refill -it's okay, we know it's just habit to put the ice in. We politely pointed out the mistake, and she left to go get a new soda. Again it took her forever to get back with the refill. She dropped it off hastily along with more bread and dashed off towards the kitchen again. -Ed takes a sip of the soda and it's regular, not diet. ...Now we're getting frustrated.

We set it on the edge of the table as an indication of a problem, but she doesn't notice. While we keep an eye out for her, we notice the smell of someone smoking... Our friend Kris points out that there was a "No Smoking" sign when we came in, but it's the HOST that's smoking! Nice... Everyone who worked there looked like they were in high school and acted like it. Their behavior would have been considered normal at Chili's, but considering the prices and quality of food, I found it to be unprofessional in this setting.

Eventually Ed and I both got refills and we started on a 3rd loaf of bread while keeping an eye on our watches. We arrived at the restaurant around 7:30pm, it was 8:30pm and we hadn't gotten our food yet! When it arrived, there was no explanation for the delay. -I understand that there are sometimes nights where a restaurant is short-staffed or the waitress is just having a bad day. As long as there's communication about the problems and status of the food, it's not a big deal. But we never heard, there was no appology, it was just bad service...

The food, on the other hand, was excellent. It all tasted great, wasn't totally overcooked (like I've found the Olive Garden lately), but we also all agreed that we wouldn't be back because of the service. It's unfortunate; I really wanted to try that pesto pizza!

Luckily, we didn't have to wait for the check! (I think they were looking to close soon.) Payment went quickly and smoothly, but I had to fight my tablemates to leave a tip (they wanted me to leave nothing). Maybe I should have, I don't know, but I left 10 % and we got the heck outta there. -It was past my bedtime! Who would have ever thought pasta could take that long???




Okay... Maybe that was more of a restaurant review than a customerrant. I don't know. This is a topic-less blog, deal. :)