I was just in Al's Diner no more than 10 minutes ago came around 7 am May 18th 2011 and had breakfast and I have to say I wasn't too pleased with the service I recieved. The waitress, not sure her name but she's the older one with the black hair, crabby looks and attitude. Basically, she got my order wrong not once but twice. I ordered a ham and cheese omelette with home fries, white toast, sausage and orange juice. Not too long after she brings me my order and I begin to eat it. Much to my dismay, I notice that my omelette is not a ham and cheese omelette but a mushroom omelette. I stop eating my breakfast and she eventually comes back around with the bill in hand assuming I was finished like she was in a hurry to get rid of me and I informed her that I asked for a ham and cheese omelette where she says and I quote *yea, thats what I brought you* when clearly there was mushrooms all over the omelette and no ham or cheese in sight... then I said *no you didnt, you brought me a mushroom omelette.... I would like a new breakfast please* she says *sure*. Not much later she comes back with my new breakfast and doesnt even appologize for the inconvenience, she pretty much just rudely drops it in front of me and doesnt even say a word. Then I notice mistake number 2, she brought me the correct omelette this time but I get brown toast instead of white toast when I specifically had white toast on my plate the first time. At this point Im fed up already and I let that one go, so I just finish my breakfast and ask for my bill while Im eating. When I finished, I get up with my bill to go pay near the bar, the bill came up to 15.33$ so I handed her a 20$ bill, while shes fishing for change from her pouch she asks me *how do you think the Senators are going to do tonight* in which I replied *Im not sure, I dont care much for hockey* by that time she hands me my change and walks away, then I noticed that she short-changed me 1$ and hands me 3.50$. Noticing this right away, I flag her down right away and point out her mistake, her excuse was she thought one of the quarters was a loonie and that was the reason why she short-changed me. I was not impressed nor did I believe this excuse, even if this were true, she still would have been short-changing me, clearly her math skills and brain cells are lacking.
Now the way I see it, she knew she had messed up my order and was trying to make a buck off me anyway despite her errors because she obviously knew that I wouldnt tip her for the mistakes, and I wasnt going to, so sensing this she tried to divert my attention by asking me that question about the Senators thinking I wouldnt notice that she was about to rip me off, which is very underhanded and sneaky. I find it very hard to believe that a veteran waitress cant tell the difference between a quarter and a loonie since they handle change and deal with people all day long. If she had gotten my order right the first time I would have given her the whole 20$ and this review would have never been composed and there wouldnt have been a problem. After she hands me my correct change I say to her before I left, *maybe you should start writing your orders down* which she failed to do relying on memory alone, she said nothing and didnt even acknowledge me, perhaps she was too embarrased to respond because she knew I was right. I didnt appreciate this kind of service from someone so incompetent, her rudeness and lack of concern was also appalling, the least she could have done at that point was say she was sorry but I didnt even get that. If her memory is that bad, she should be writing down EVERY order, maybe management/ownership should see to this or better yet, terminate her employment. I can just imagine how many orders she messes up let alone try to scam people out of their change each day in this manner and it going unnoticed, consider yourself informed once and for all. I definitely wont be coming back if this is the quality of people Al's Diner employs. read more