I haven't visited for a few years now because my last experience was repulsive.
Perhaps it was a coincidence but I received very odd treatment (abnormal from all my prior experiences) here when we asked non-white friends to join us for lunch.
We were seated in the corner by the cookie jars, 3 kids among us. The waitress for some reason could not hear my non-white friend even though she was perfectly audible to me, and I was audible to the waitress (not speaking any louder than my friend). Nonetheless, my friend had to repeat herself more than once, and I felt her guard go up that the treatment was odd. My protective instinct for them (and my child) went up as well.
The food took an extremely long time but that can happen at lunch because they are very busy. What was odd was that my friend was given an order of fries she never asked for--I heard her order THREE TIMES and somehow the waitress still did not get it right.
I will add that the waitress was extremely preoccupied with a male customer, flirting, giggling and acting like a high schooler (she was 20-something). I get being giddy in a new relationship but it was completely distracting her from her job and was totally inappropriate especially considering all the mistakes she was making.
We also had to wait extremely long periods between being given water, ketchup (again, my friend's request), our bill, etc.
Worst part, the bill was extremely high and included about $15 more than what we ordered. We were charged for the fries she mistakenly (on purpose?) gave us, and the wrong sandwiches were on there too. You know what I did? I did the "nice white girl" thing and obediently made no fuss and left a tip that waitress never deserved. It's sad I was confused and overwhelmed by the sh!tty treatment and in denial about what happened.
Yes, I should have made a complaint then and there but they'd already made us late for the arboretum, plus when you treat people passive aggressively, and you make 3 kids between 1 and 5 have to sit for an hour of the slowest incompetent service ever, I had to just pay and leave because I was not going to make a scene in front of kids and the place was slammed with people so I'd have had to further wait for someone to be available.
However I did attempt to call them multiple times in the days after but no one picked up during lunch hours when I called. They have no email address I could find to show my receipt and as the days passed I had a million other things to do as the mom of a young child so that's how it goes when a business has no email in the 21st Century.
We were treated like crap and overcharged. I realized all my prior visits were with my family or extended family, all white people. Childhood visits were with a white friend who lives nearby, and her white family. You can see in photos and reviews I have been to this place many times going back to my childhood, but I haven't returned since and I will never go back.
I got a good sense of how it feels when "odd" passive aggressive behavior seems to happen around non-white people, and yes it could be honest mistakes (a series of them aimed at my non-white friend) or it could be discriminatory. It could be that one waitress's attitude is irreflective of the establishment but this is what happened at this establishment, and the result is we were treated deplorably and I have no reason to ever return. They owe me an overcharge of $15 plus the unfairly high tip I left that horrible waitress! read more