My dad took my brother ( 15 at the time ) and me ( I was 18 ) to eat at Bennigan's. At the time, it was a nice place to eat. ( They have since REALLY screwed up the menu and the atmosphere...*sigh* )
ANYWAY...we get seated at a booth. 1) It takes the waitress 15 minutes to come to the table. It was a Thursday night...they weren't THAT busy...no excuse. She finally comes to take our drink order and I order iced tea with lime. ( OK, it's Texas, and if they serve margaritas or Corona, they HAVE limes! ) She proceeds to give me a 5 minute lecture on how she, too, likes lime in her tea and disappears... a few minutes later, she brings our drinks...no lime. I asked her ( politely at this point ) for some lime. She smiles and says she's sorry and goes to the bar. She comes back with a plate of...are you ready? LEMONS. 2) She stands there, smiling, like she just did a really good thing, and waiting for approval. *There ya go!* I look at the plate, look at her, and say *Where are my limes?* She looks totally confused and says *But you asked for lemons.* UH, NO, I didn't. So she asks if we're ready to order... 3) Never DID get my limes.
4) She pulls a chair out by a nearby table, flips it BACK-WARDS, straddles it, puts her elbows on the table, looks into my brother's eyes ( **rolling MY eyes** ) and proceeds to take our order...we order an appetizer and food. My brother orders steamed veggies as his side dish...
5) 20 minutes later, she brings our food. As she stands there grinning, my brother tries to send his meal back. He ordered steamed veggies, NOT rice. 6) She gets on the chair AGAIN and, instead of taking his food back like she's supposed to...7) she offers to teach him how to eat with chopsticks *and we'll call it even*. OK. I have had ENOUGH of THIS. My Dad knows me...and tells me to calm down before I have a chance to ask for a manager. I glare at him and turn to her and ask: *Where are our cheese sticks?* She says *Ummm....lemme go check...* 8) She comes back and says *the cook forgot to make them, do you still want them?* Uh, NO, they were an appetizer and we have already eaten. 9) Then....GRRR...she GENEROUSLY offers to remove them from the check...I should think so, since we never got them!!!! We go to pay the bill, and my father GRABS me by the back of my neck, hands my brother the money, and takes me outside before I can cause a scene...
That's when I learned the beauty of calling the manager. :-)