As someone who has been reviewing for Yelp for a long time, this has to be the absolute worst…read moredining experience I've ever had. I mean that very seriously.
On Saturday, 2/28, I came into the restaurant at 6:15pm with a group of 6. Looking around the restaurant, there were only 3 tables taken. The Hostess wanted to put us a table, but it wouldn't fit us all. We asked her where to sit and she told us to decide on seating. We had to suggest to put a table together and started to move it ourselves, then she helped. Just odd because we had no idea if they had a table to seat us.
While waiting for the server, the table in front of us asked for to-go boxes and was told they only have the bottoms, no lids. She brought plastic wrap to cover their leftovers. They were not happy and left without a lot of their leftovers.
Our service came out and was very sweet. She honestly was the nicest person at that restaurant and she deserves to go somewhere that she can make better money. She told us they only had beer and wine, but only a few on the wine list. Sometimes if it was asked for, they said they didn't have it. I stuck to a Coke. We ordered as follows:
Me: Loaded Baked Potato (yes that's it.)
Person 2: wedge salad
Person 3: cornbread skillet
Person 4 and 5 had burgers. One had cheddar cheese with everything on it. The other had everything BUT pickles. We waited about an hour for our food. Person 5's burger came out and the fries were cold. I'm not meaning lukewarm, I mean COLD. Like out a fridge. They hadn't even been cooked all the way. Person 4's burger came out without cheese. Both of those were sent back to get that fixed. Person 4's burger came back with a piece of half melted (what looked like) American cheese on the bottom of the burger and the burger was BURNT. I mean, hockey puck burnt. When the fries were sent back, we could hear the cook SCREAMING AND THROWING THINGS, yelling that we "weren't right" and he "had just took those up". The server even felt them and agreed with us. My baked potato came out hard. I couldn't really even eat it. It was hard, bland and it was covered in sour cream, even the outside. A runner came over to bring some salt and pepper and I asked her if she wouldn't mind letting us talk to a manager. Everyone there said I was polite in asking, as we just wanted to tell her what was going on, not trying to get anything free. When I asked, she threw her hands up in the air, slapped her hips, rolled her eyes and stomped away. The people around us even looked at her. They also could hear the cook yelling. We did see another couple send their food back as well while we were waiting.
The manager comes over and when we tell her everything, she tells us she agrees and that she's working on getting better help, as we could see what she was working with there. We just asked her for the check and asked to go. We hear the manager try to talk to the team and the cook begins to scream and talk down to her. Then, he came out and stared at our table. If looks could kill, we would all be dead. The thing is- burgers there are $18. We didn't get anything hard to make but only the salad and the cornbread were fit to eat.
They did comp our meal, but we continued to ask them to let us pay. Instead, we ended up giving the money to the server. She can only do what she can and she was so sweet.
I do have multiple people who will attest to everything that happened.
That was the whole experience. We walked outside and immediately went to get something else to eat.
We came to the American because this was our first time in town and we had heard great things about it! Of course, we had seen it on TV as well, so we were very excited. The next night, another couple we knew went there and had the same experience. She was the only table in there and they still took over an hour and her food was terrible. This is absolutely so disappointing. The American used to be THE destination down here but now, it's the one everyone is telling people NOT to go to. We talked to our hotel host and they said they wished we would have asked because they would have told us to stay away. It's a shame. I really hope they can get some new people in there who care about food and making it good!
I'd love to come back if they're able to improve and change my review. I do have 5 other people who are willing to attest to this, so as much as I wish it was an exaggeration, it's not.
