Growing up in Southern California, I always LOVED Bob's Big Boy. My father, brother and I used to go to the Burbank location at least once her week. Now their locations have dwindled mightily. So I was really disheartened a few years ago when I went to this location and experienced horrible service. It was so bad that I chose to swear off this location permanently. (I wrote a separate review on that back then).
But today, with kids in tow, I decided to finally give it another try. It's literally been a few years, and things had to improve, right? NOPE! Boy was it wrong!
I walked in with five total kids, ranging from 4 yrs old up to 16. There didn't seem to be any wait, but we respected the "Please wait to be seated" sign. With multiple tables open, and workers buzzing around the restaurant, I figured we wouldn't wait long. Nevertheless, we ended up standing there for over EIGHT MINUTES before someone even acknowledged our existence. Seriously, we had workers walk right by us multiple times and intentionally avoid eye contact!
We were finally seated, and I started my watch again, I had a sneaking suspicion. The kid's immediately asked for ice cream and dove into the dessert menu. I told them that we were there for lunch, and put the dessert menu aside - I intentionally hid that menu from view. And we waited. And waited. And waited. I made eye contact with who I thought was a server, and her eyes darted from me. I decided, and told the kids, that if my watch hit 10 minutes, we were leaving. At 9 minutes, 23 seconds, a server came by and asked if we wanted water. When I told her that we had been there a while, and were ready to order, she scoffed and asked me to hold on a moment while she retrieved a different note pad. Seriously!
We all put in our orders, and I thought we were set. But then she gave me this zinger: "Oh, you seem to not have a dessert menu." As she shoved a new dessert menu in front of the youngest children. "Would anyone like ice cream or shakes with their meals?" She smiled wryly at the youngest two kids, who lit up and literally cheered.
I showed her that I had hidden the previous dessert menu, and reiterated to the kids that we were there for lunch. The server then very sternly glared at me and said: "That needs to stay ON the table."
Seriously?!
Either way, our food took another twenty minutes to come out. Further, I had asked that if they were ready, could she bring the youngest kids' meals out to get started on while the rest of us wait. A simple request I regularly make at other places - without issue.
Apparently that was all too much to ask. Not only did she bring out our food after twenty minutes, she served everyone EXCEPT my 4 year old! She literally had forgotten his order! Not that she left it behind, she forgot to put in his order! Yeah, my little guy's sister and I shared our fries with him while he waited for his chicken strips.
When we were finally finished, she had one more zinger for me. See, I had hidden BOTH of the dessert menus. I'm on a limited budget, and the kids did not need more sugar. Not only that, their prices have gone way up in the last few years! I wasn't going to spend another $40 to sugar-load our afternoon. That's my right as a parent to make that call. But, here comes our server, with an extra TWO dessert menus and says: "These seem to keep disappearing at this table," as she glared at me and puts them on the table in front of the kids, "Now, who wants ice cream?!"
The two youngest went excitedly crazy again. But I didn't have to intervene. By now, the 16 year old had had enough. She said: "He said no. Dad said no. No thank you!" And she collected ALL FOUR of the dessert menus and handed them back to the server.
That's my girl!
The final straw, after all this and the waiting, my little guy wanted more apple juice. The server was kind enough to remind me that she had to charge me for it. Of course! $3.99 for a 6 oz cup of juice. Seriously?!
But hey, it's the last &3.99 I'll EVER spend there. It's been more than three years since I was there. I don't plan on ever going back. read more