Bad Service

Whenever I go to a pasta place, I always order my pasta without cheese. This isn't because I'm allergic or anything, but because I don't like cheese. Yet many, many times, I end up getting cheese on my food.

Out of the last four times I've been to California Pizza Kitchen, I've gotten cheese in my order three times. The first time I ordered a pizza without cheese, and it came with cheese. I just ate it anyway because I figured it would be too much effort to make a new pizza. The second time was a take-out order of pasta that my dad picked up for me, and I wasn't going to bother to go back there and fix the order. The third time, miraculously, I got a no-cheese pizza. The fourth time was just yesterday, and I ordered pasta without cheese. The waitress clearly wrote down "no cheese", and yet my order came with Parmesan cheese all over it. I had it sent back.

Also, at one of the noodle restaurants I would order no cheese every single time yet get cheese every single time. Once this had happened two or three times in a row, so I received a "we screwed up" coupon for a free entree. When I told the guy who took my order that the reason I got the coupon was because I had asked for no cheese but gotten cheese, my order finally came without cheese on it.

At Noodles & Company a few times I've also gotten cheese when I clearly asked for no cheese, but generally they're pretty good about it.

I don't get it. How come whenever I add something extra to my pasta, like mushrooms or broccoli, there's never a problem with that, but when I want something taken off my order, there's a problem? I know the cooking staff is so used to putting cheese on EVERYTHING, but they should respect people's wishes when they don't order cheese! I don't know how I can stop this from happening since I always make sure the waitress writes down no cheese, and yet it comes with cheese anyway. Really annoying.

My dad has been going to this restaurant called Trio's in Washington D.C since the late 60's, early 70's. He loves it and goes once a week. He wanted to take me yesterday for lunch. I agreed and thought it would be fun since it's such an important place to my father.

We got seated promptly and got our menus. About 10 minutes later, we were ready to order but no one had come to our table yet. I asked my dad what the service was like here, and he said "depends on your server, but usually pretty good." I didn't think much of it. Though, fifteen minutes later, I knew we probably had gotten a bad server. My dad finally flagged someone down and we ordered. I got a bagel with smoked salmon, a diet coke, and a water. He got the tuna triple decker and a water. Drinks came out fast, though his didn't have a straw. He asked for a straw, and five minutes later, still no straw. He asked again. No straw. He asked another waiter. No straw. Ten minutes later, he got a straw. Though, the server opened it and got her fingers on the top and put it in his drink. I gave my dad my straw.

After that incident, we were kind of annoyed, but just really hungry and wanted to talk and enjoy yourselves. By now, fifteen minutes had gone by since we ordered and there weren't many people in the restaurant. Probably about 3 other parties. We didn't order complicated meals or meat that needed to be cooked, so we were suprised our food hadn't arrived yet. I mean, if were a fancy place, I'd understand. But Trio's is a diner.

Twenty minutes later, we asked where our food was and our waitress said it would be right out. Ten minutes after that, so 30 minutes after we ordered, we got our food. We were pretty annoyed and hungry at that point. Everything was tasty, but when I dropped my knife with a little bit of cream chease on it, my dad told me not to pick it up and that our waitress would take care of it. She came by, rolled her eyes at me, and picked it up. I apologized and she just shrugged and when she seated a guy right next to where I dropped the knife, she said "Watch where you step, that girl just dropped a knife with cream cheese on it." He laughed, but I thought it was really uncalled for.

My dad and I expected a little more deceny, especially since he's been giving consistent business for all these years. The manager knows him and he's good friends with a lot of the waiters. I guess this one was just having a bad day or not a good server. I want to cut some slack and we still tipped, but should we complain?

Went to Little Caesar's tonight to pick up a couple of those hot-n-ready pizzas, and when I pulled into the drivethru there was a large SUV of some kind parked in the lane, with its driver standing next to it talking to the employee. At first, I figured it was a normal transaction and the woman hadn't pulled up close enough or something, but they both looked out at me and then continued having their conversation. The driver kept leaning into the window and hollering something and laughing, and then the worker would holler back (there was a good deal of swearing, audible from my position some ten feet back). This went on for maybe five minutes and nothing changed hands -- no money, no food -- so it didn't look like a customer waiting on food to me.

When the woman finally pulled away, I just pulled right out after her. Maybe I shouldn't be so mad, but it's not just that they were talking -- it's that they continued talking for several minutes after they noticed I was there. I understand when it's a slow night and your friends come by and bug you at work, but I always thought the friends were supposed to get out of the way when a customer showed up. Damn it, I just wanted some pizza.