My husband and I eat out at least once a week, and we love diners. I was a diner waitress for many years. That being said, most diners we go to offer quick, efficient service and pretty decent food. I am very fair and a very patient person, and I will praise a restaurant with great reviews if they are great. NOT THIS PLACE. Where do I start? We walked in at 3 pm on a Saturday, place is practically empty. A man and a woman both picked up menus and showed us to the same table. They laughed, saying they were fighting over us. That's where the efficiency ended, sorry to say. Our waitress came over and announces that they just had a big rush and she needs time to catch her breath. She puts her order pad down on the table and says WOOO! and mops her brow. Says she's sweating to death. Not a good impression so far. I ordered the mesclun greens salad, which comes with grilled chicken. I asked her what dressings they have. She hesitates, says "salad dressings? Let me see..." says she would eat it with a raspberry vinegrette or a balsamic. She clearly doesn't know all the dressings they offer. I tell her I will have balsamic vinaigrette. I ask her what soups they have. She tells us, my grandson says he will have he chicken orzo soup and a grilled cheese. My husband orders a BLT with butter, onion, no mayo, lightly toasted on rye. Waitress says "what kind of bread do you want it on?" My husband says " um, rye". She says "do you want it toasted?" He looks at me and then says "yes, lightly toasted". The waitress then reads the order back to him to make sure she has it correct. She then disappears. We are waiting a very long time for our food and realize 50 minutes have passed. It does not take that long to make that food. I started glancing around for our waitress and the guy up front (I am thinking he was a manager?) noticed and went in the kitchen and out comes the waitress. She comes over all flustered and rattles off something about how she put the order in wrong and they made the BLT wrong so they had to do it again. She goes in the kitchen and comes out with my grandson's soup. More waiting. She then comes out with the grilled cheese, my husband's sandwich and a dish of raspberry vinaigrette for me. No salad. I tell her that I ordered the balsamic vinaigrette. She says " oh yeah, that's right". My salad doesn't come right out and I am waiting. She finally comes out with my salad and proper dressing. My husband's sandwich is not lightly toasted, it is almost burnt, and the tomatoes in my salad taste off. The waitress comes over and gives me a refill on my diet coke even though I still have half a glass left. She's all rushing and flustered. I thought that was nice of her to bring it until she brought us the bill and I saw that they CHARGE FOR REFILLS. That was a sneaky thing to do to just bring over a refill without even asking if we want a refill and then have the audacity to charge for it! I checked the bill and see that she charged me $3.50 for chicken on my salad, when the salad COMES WITH CHICKEN! I went up to the manager, showed him the menu and told him I was charged for chicken that already was included in the price of the salad. He was very nice about it and removed the charge. On the receipt is a section for the customer to check off if the food was excellent, good or poor and if the service was excellent, good or poor. I marked the food good but marked the service as poor. When you are a waitress, it is your responsibility to know your menu, know what dressings you have, what the soups and vegetables of the day are and what comes on a dish (example, the mesclun salad comes with grilled chicken on top for $10.95.) ALSO - she asked me what size salad I wanted and I said small - and then she charged me for a large and added the chicken. You need to be able to turn your tables over quickly in a diner and you need to check on your customers and their food, especially if they are waiting a long time and it is obvious that they are not happy about it. Our waitress was nowhere to be seen while we waited for our food to come out. Even if it was something out of her control, she still should have come over and apologized about the wait. Horrible service. Service is a big part of dining out, it is not just all about the food! read more