We went to the Trolley Bar to have the salad bar tonight, but for the first time in my 40 - odd…read moreyears of paying my own way at a restaurant, I suggested we drink our beers and leave without eating, even though we had ordered the salad bar and a French Onion soup. The reason(s)? Let me explain in detail:
The restaurant was practically empty at 6 pm on a Sunday night (not a good sign); we were seated at a 4 top about parallel with the bar, where we observed a waitress chowing down on a piece of cheesecake at the bar, not 10 feet from us (she left the rest to come back to later). No one wants to see staff eating or drinking and then preparing or serving food.
We ordered a salad bar each, at $17.99 per person, and my wife added on a French Onion soup.
I went to the washroom and saw that they had 2 containers of soap (that were supposed to be in wall - mount dispensers) on either side of the sink. However, only the one on the right actually worked. I turned to leave, and saw that the toilet paper was sitting on top of the hand bar, instead of the holder, which appeared to be missing a piece. By the door, they have a baby changing table with various cleaning items underneath (not a huge deal, but no one wants to see the inside of a custodian's closet).
I returned from the washroom and we subsequently approached the salad bar, only to find about 6 plates, and a few scraps of burnt (rusty) lettuce in each of the three bowls. I said to my wife, "I'm sorry, I'm not eating this. Let's go somewhere else."
I waived the waitress over, who dropped off some bread that looked like it was a week old and had been deep fried, and told her that we would pay for our beers and leave. I told her that the salad bar lettuce was burnt, and we weren't going to eat it.
As we finished our beers, the manager came over and said he heard that we had issues with the salad bar. I asked him if he had a moment, and we walked over to the salad bar, where they had refilled one bowl of lettuce. I picked up a piece of rusty lettuce from another, smaller bowl, and explained that the big bowl had the same burnt lettuce in it. I also showed him the pictures of the washroom, and explained, for context, that I am a certified executive chef. The manager was so apologetic that he even took the salad bar off of our bill...which was generous considering we hadn't eaten one bit of it. All in all, he was patronizing and unapologetic, which was extremely disappointing considering I was very respectful and was actually trying to help the Trolley Bar to not lose more customers (which, as a 40 year veteran of the hospitality industry, is my duty).
The ONLY reason I gave one star (other than that it's not possible to give 0 stars) is that the beer glasses were cold. Other than that, we will never return, even though we have had 3 - 4 good meals there in the past.
Good luck in the future. I would suggest implementing a staff training plan as soon as possible.
