I live in the area, and have visited Cheddars many times. As with all restaurants in the JoMo area, they start off with a lot of momentum. Some can sustain it, others fade away. I think Cheddars is in danger of fading away. I have never had a bad meal there, and of all the meals anyone in my party has ever had, there has never been a complaint about the food. Service, however, is a different story.
My first bad experience a couple was probably 2009 or 2010. The server took it upon himself to round my change. He owed me some number of dollars, and something like 52 cents. He returned with the correct dollars, but rounded the coins to 50 cents without explanation. If he had owed my 48 cents and rounded to 50, I would have been very generous in my tip. But taking any amount of MY money without explanation angered me, so I wrote on my receipt that I didn't forget the tip, but I purposefully stiffed him because of his choice. I hope he learned from that experience. I'm usually a pretty generous tipper, regularly in the 20 to 25% range.
Second bad experience was 2011. Server delivering food to table next to us dropped food, and it splattered on 2 people in my party. Server didn't make any extra effort to clean up, and didn't respond when we pointed out she dropped food on us. I would have expected her to alert manager to come out and try to soothe things over.
Third was 5/29/12. Showed up about 6:00 PM on a Sunday evening after visiting relatives in hospital. They were not terribly busy (not empty, either), but it still took over 40 minutes for us to get our food. Server never explained that there might be a delay of any sort. After about 30 minutes I told him that we were very hungry, and the delay was unacceptable. That if our food wasn't there soon, we were walking. I asked to speak to manager. Manager came out and apologized, saying that a group of 20 had just been seated prior to our arrival, and that was causing the delay. We didn't make a scene, but I explained that if that was the case, then they knew about it when I ordered, and they should have done something to set expectations. Come on, man...you don't actually cook anything there as its ordered. All your food is somewhat pre-made, and you just warm it/finish it/toast it prior to serving. You expect me to believe you have someone out back BBQ'ing ribs? Steaks, appetizers, and fish, maybe, but veggies/sides/salads and all that are ready to be dished and served.
Our food came out soon after that, and the manager did come by to check on the quality of the food. I explained that the food was good, as usual, but that they were in jeopardy of losing my repeat business. Finally, I had to tell him that if he wanted to have me back as a customer, he was going to have to do something to make it worth my while, like comp my check. He said he would give me a coupon for free meals on my next trip, and I said that was sufficient, and would give them another try.
Our return trip was last night, 7/30/2012. I showed our server the coupon, and explained to her that I needed to know right away if there were going to be any restrictions on us being able to redeem that coupon. She took it, and when she came back she said that we could order anything but the Ribeye steak (most expensive item on menu, but still under $15).
We ordered no appetizers, and no salads, and it still took over 20 minutes to get our food. They were not busy. I sorta expected that the coupon would be my key to getting quick service, and that the manager might come by to visit. Granted, we were not in a high traffic part of the dining area, but I never saw the manager in the front of the house.
This is one of those high churn places...they need to get people in and out to have a decent margin. Even though they have the A/C cranked down, and it was below 70 degrees in there, they can't keep the pace in the kitchen. There are delays in getting people seated, even when there are empty tables.
Staff has always been friendly, just varying levels of ability to keep up. My jaded view is there are managers in place that do little to teach, encourage, or model truly excellent service. Maybe being near the highway and next to one of the larger hotels in Joplin, they have sufficient business that these weaknesses can be ignored. My suggestion to anyone staying at the Residence Inn...I know you can walk across the parking lot and have good food. But hop in the car and drive just a little bit, and you can find good food and good service at a lot of other places in town. read more