If you had asked me yesterday or any day in the last three decades, I would have given this place 5 stars. But, today I had one of the most horrible service experiences of my life. When we arrived, we were asked "dine in or take out?" and when I said "dine in" we were told to pick any table that had menus on it. We did, and took the booth on the far left, just past a Christmas tree that was set up for the holidays. After we ordered our food and took off our masks, I noticed a heavy, artificial scent that was overpowering. I looked around for an air "freshener" of some kind but found nothing. I walked across to the other side of the room (where there were also booths with menus) and the smell was much less severe there. We moved our glasses of water over to the new booth and sat down. Our waitress came back and asked if there was something wrong with our first table. I explained that there was a strong smell, like maybe some sort of air freshener being dispensed that it was intolerable so we moved. She looked visibly annoyed and shot back snottily that they have no such air fresheners or anything there (although she never went over to the old table to see if she could smell it), and looked under our new table with obvious displeasure on her face. I asked, "is it OK, that we moved?" and she said, "it's just that I just cleaned under there" in a very annoyed sort of way. I said, "I'm sorry" with sincerity. She said, "it's OK" in a way that made it obvious that it was NOT ok with her. Then she walked away with me still asking (to her back), "are you sure? Because it doesn't SEEM OK with you."
The food was deposited with MAJOR attitude. She then walked across to the table we had been sitting at previously and YELLED across the restaurant to another waitress, "_____, can you please come clean table #xx? It needs to be cleaned again" in a very put-out sort of way. Recognizing the problem here was that we had created one moment of "extra" work, I offered to solve the problem. "I'll clean it, I don't mind. I just couldn't sit there anymore but I'm happy to clean it" I said. Our waitress then went on to say that it was not just the old table that had to be cleaned, but that she had just swept under our new table and she only gets a certain amount of time allocated for that and now she would have to make time to do it again. I offered again, "well, get me the broom and I'll clean it for you. You see, I don't mind doing a little bit of work, it's fine with me." She stormed off, yelling about us to anyone in the kitchen who would listen, and I could hear her saying things like, "I don't care, I'll take it off my...(something unintelligible)". Next, she stormed over to our table, slammed down two to-go containers, and said, "your lunch is on me today. You don't have to worry about your bill" and seemed to expect us to pack up our food on the spot and go. I said and did nothing and she stormed away.
We finished our lunch at the table, being entertained a little by the other young employees horsing around in the kitchen (someone giving piggy-back rides), packed our leftovers in the provided to-go containers, left a $20 bill on the table for what I calculated to be an $18.28 check and left. As we were walking out, someone shouted "happy holidays!" after us (in a way that might have been sarcastic), but I cannot be sure which of the young female voices it was.
We had decided to go to the Dairy Cottage today to celebrate my kid's acceptance at his dream college. When we were driving there, I told a story of how I remember going there when I was pregnant and Christmas shopping, 18 years ago probably to the day! Even then I had been a long-time customer and watched this place evolve through the years. I have watched menu changes, renovations, holidays, technology, and many other things change while this place remained a family favorite. I have lots of positive memories, all overshadowed by today's experience.
We won't be back. My 30+ years of dining here ended today. Time to find a new family favorite. read more