Updates

Wow. I don't remember knowing what it was like to come to a quiet house for lunch.
Gracie got dropped off this morning at 6:30, and her teacher's aide was in the classroom when we arrived. She hugged me and told me to come back to get her when I leave work. I assured her I would.

I have a picture of her bento lunch for today, but will post it later. Right now I want to talk about my wonderful dining experience at Chili's out at Eastchase yesterday. I'm not even going to be like my friend, Amy Wade and change the name of the restaurant to protect it's image. It was Chili's. Check out their website for more info!

Just let me preface this story by telling you we had plans to see "Dark Knight" at The Rave, maybe a 10 minute drive from the restaurant. The movie started at 12:50pm.

11:30 AM
Arrive at the restaurant. We are seated promptly, the waitress takes our drink order while Bryan jets to the bathroom. She returns seconds later. We are not ready to order, she will come back.
11:45 AM
Waitress (Latoya) returns to take our orders.

Between our order taking and my soup arriving, my drink cup was empty for about 10 minutes.

12:00PM
My baked potato soup arrives by a waitress who is not Latoya, minus the applewood smoked bacon advertised on the menu. I am too hungry to complain. I begin to eat my soup, only to realize my drink cup is still empty.
12:15 PM
The soup waitress returns to fill my drink cup that has now been empty for about twenty minutes. Did I mention my soup was extra creamy with cheese on top? Thirst worthy, I promise.

12:30 PM
Latoya the Waitress returns for the second time in our hour long wait to ask if we are "done". While the look on Bryan's face might have suggested she was insane, he politely informed her we were NOT "done". Looking quite dumbfounded, she says she'll find out what happened to our food.

Moments later....
Enter a very nice looking gentleman in an orange shirt who did not introduce himself. Or maybe he did, but my blood was boiling so much at that point I failed to reason why his name is important in this story. He apologized for our wait, said they were cooking our food and would bring it out shortly. He apologized again, he was tied up with "something else". I thanked him for his apology but informed him our waitress Latoya had been to our table TWICE in the hour time frame we had been sitting. Also told him we had movie plans that were about 15 minutes from starting without us. I inquired if we could get the check when she returned so we could leave when our food was finished. He said not to worry about the check, lunch was on him today.

12:45 PM
We received our lunch rather quickly by the manager himself, and it was at this moment that our waitress Latoya decided to inquire about how our check should be split. I told her to take it up with the manager, HE was taking care of it.

While our food was hot and delicious and free, it does in no way make up for the terrible service we received. And this was only our second visit! There was hardly no one in the facility when we arrived, and it's not like we ordered a T-bone steak and wanted it well done. I had a turkey sandwich, Kayla had chicken fajitas, and Bryan had chicken strips. I did post a message to corporate on the Chili's website and assured them that while the manager did his part in handling the situation, it would probably not sway our decision in never re-visiting this establishment or recommending it to our friends. I said (and I quote) "I would hate for someone I know to receive the kind of service I did today!"

FYI to Amy Wade: I knew you'd enjoy this post after your own encounters at O'Farley's, so I made sure this whole post was laced with sarcastic whit - just for you!