For starters, my wife and I eat at Champions two or three times per month. We love the staff, the…read moreowner (Sara), and the quality of the food. We are easy, if boring, customers. We order the same exact thing each time: Boneless wings for me and a Beef Taco Salad for my wife.
My wings were great as always today. My wife's Beef Taco Salad, on the other hand, appeared to have a burned burger patty (barely chopped up) sitting on top of her salad. The beef was not edible, but my wife tried picking out the bad parts...the problem is that there were no good parts. So, my wife enjoyed our appetizer.
When our waitress asked how everything was, my wife showed her the burned, chopped burger patty, and said "This is awful. I just wanted your kitchen to know because I get this all the time and it's never like this." The waitresses apologized. She was so sweet.
We didn't want the salad take off the bill, even though it was not edible. The wings were great, the beer was cold, and the service was amazing. This is where things took a turn for the worse.
One of the owners, not Sara, approached out table. He was spotted with bits of grease and food on his clothes, so I assumed he was working in the kitchen. There was no greeting, no smile, no kindness. He leans in onto the side of our table with his hands and says, "There's a problem with the beef?"
My wife replied that the beef as clearly a burned burger patty, but before she could finish, he cut her off and said, "The beef is always hamburger, I'll take 50% off" and then abruptly walked away. He was mean, unprofessional, dismissive, and accusatory. We never asked our waitress for the owner and we certainly never asked for a discount for the salad that my wife didn't touch.
True to his word, the angry, dismissive owner took 50% off my wife's inedible Beef Taco Salad. Happy with our service, we tipped our amazing waitress 50% of the bill.
We will be giving Champions a bit of a break. One of the staff was overheard explaining to another unhappy customer that "We have new staff in the kitchen." This makes sense, and is all the more reason for the owner to treat my wife's inedible Beef Taco Salad with a bit more professionalism. His attitude was almost accusatory, as if we had done something wrong by answering his question about "the beef."
We never asked to speak to the owner anyhow and were happy to eat our appetizer and wings. We understand that staffing restaurant is hard beyond measure and that we all have a bad night now and then.
Champions is normally awesome and the owner, Sara, never would have behaved the way the gentleman who approached us tonight behaved. It is our hope that Sara can minimize that guy's presence because he clearly lacks the interpersonal skills necessary to navigate the human side of the restaurant business. We won't be back for a while.
