I've been a fan of Red Robin for a very long time. I've seen many iterations of the restaurant,…read morefrom baskets to plates, and even pizza on the menu. I've been to more than a dozen locations across multiple states. Even as the kitschy, quirky art has mostly been removed from the walls and RR has lost most its soul, I've still been a fan. My experience tonight might have been the final nail in the coffin for the restaurant for me, no more excuses.
My wife and I come in for a late lunch/early dinner. Were warmly greeted and led to a booth along the back wall. The restaurant is mostly empty, maybe 3 or 4 tables with patrons. After about ten minutes, our waiter comes up, Chris. He's on some kind of mobile device used for recording orders. Immediately he's cold and off-putting. We greet him, though it should be the other way around, and he asks if he can get any drinks started for us. My wife orders, then I order. We are trying to catch a showtime at the local theater, so my wife adds, "we'd like to place our food order as well." Chris replies "would you like any mozzarella sticks?" We say no thank you and he literally turns and leaves. Nothing, no "be back shortly," "I'll be right back," nothing. Odd. The whole interaction felt off, from the monotone delivery to the intense staring. It did not feel like this person had any sort of customer service training whatsoever.
He comes back in a couple minutes with my soda, then leaves again and returns with my wife's drink. We then place our food order.
While waiting for our food, I have a feeling something is off. The way he was distracted while we were talking, didn't repeat anything back, and just left was too strange to ignore, so I checked the digital kiosk at the table to review our order. Sure enough, the order placed was incorrect. Not long later our food comes and it is, surprise, incorrect. I tell Chris the issue and he says something like "yep I was way off" and just STARED at us. He was not apologetic or did not seem interested in correcting his mistake at all. At this point I had had enough. I was upset and did not want to stay there. I asked to speak with the manager and after going back and forth with Chris he goes to retrieve someone.
In a moment, Kyle, the regional manager spoke with us. He was very apologetic and assured us the team member would be coached. We were appreciative of Kyle's humbleness and professionalism. It certainly helped ease my tension. We ended up eating what we were given because we were on a time limit, then left.
The frustrating part about all of this is eating out at a restaurant is not an easy decision to make these days. A burger at RR will run you upwards of $20. Yes, there are deals for cheaper, but as I said earlier for someone eating at RR for over 20 years and seeing the prices increase higher and higher while the restaurant loses more and more of its character really makes me wonder why bother. Why not cook at home or grab take-out from a local spot. Now we have to deal with horrible customer service? What happened to waiters being appreciative, warm, kind, and personable?
Red Robin, I love you, but I think it's time to let you go.
Hey, one star for the food because it was yummy, and another star for Kyle.
