"Don't eat here! Denny's corporate needs to hire new management and cooking staff at this location."
This review is specific to my experience at Denny's on Devonshire Blvd., just west of Balboa.
Denny's as a company has built it's business on American comfort food at reasonable prices. In the past, I have found most Denny's restaurants to offer consistent quality and service, though never a 5 star establishment, it has been a 'go to' restaurant for late-nite diners looking for an inexpensive bite.
I have eaten at this Denny's a number of times in the past, and have witnessed the slow and grinding decline with regards to service and quality at this location. My last experience was just that, my last. I will no longer be dining at this Denny's site until corporate makes some significant changes here.
On my last visit I ordered a Side salad, a Philly Melt with a Boca patty instead of the beef, and a side of fried shrimp. After specifying my desire for the Boca instead of the Beef, the server repeated the order and confirmed the request.
My side salad arrived and it was clear the the lettuce had been sitting in tepid water until use, as my salad had enough water on my plate to splash a cocktail. The lettuce was obviously day old with reddish color taking over, and preserved by soaking in water to be reused the following day. Sickening.
The Boca Philly melt arrived, and after the first bite I realized something was amiss: NO CHEESE! A PHILLY MELT WITH NO CHEESE?! I mentioned to my server that there was no cheese on my sammy, and sat through his superfluous excuse as to why the cook neglected to actually 'melt' my Philly Melt. Apparently this Denny's location 'automatically' removes cheese from Boca orders as a consideration for 'healthy diners'. Not to call my good server a liar, but I've ordered the same dish here at least a dozen times, and never has this happen. The dish was 'repaired' and brought back.
Now for the deathblow. The Shrimp.
Shrimp is perhaps one of the easiest seafoods to prepare. Wash, peel, and 'de-vein'. I call it the triumvirate of easy, peezy, shrimp deleezy. If any of these steps aren't adhered to, your shrimp should not be served to paying customers. Any cook knows this, except for the cook that prepared my food that night at Denny's.
My Fried Shrimp arrived, golden-brown and piping hot with a side of cocktail sauce, just how I like it. Perhaps the soggy salad and melt-less melt will be but a memory.
All it took was one bite to realize that the person occupying the front-line was neither a cook, nor a shrimp eater, as the sight of a big ol' healthy vein was before me. Now for those more squeamish than myself should probably read a few sentences ahead as I tell you what the 'vein' REALLY IS, and why I was so disgusted:
The 'straight dope' is that the shrimps 'vein' isn't actually a vein at all, but the large intestine. And for those who don't remember science class in 7th grade, the large intestine is home to bacteria and is the place where bowel movement occurs. So essentially, the 'vein' is the runner for the poop-shoot. I was served poopy pants shrimp. The manager 'Lucky' is lucky he still has a restaurant. How you can serve sh*t to your customers and call yourself a restaurant is beyond my understanding.
One star, never returning and warning my Yelp friends is enough for me. The dogs seemed to enjoy the leftover shrimp, they also seem to enjoy eating their own feces on occasion.
Yelp on my friends!!! read more