We stopped at State Burger after a day of tooling around near State College. In our party, there were four adults and four kids, ages 4-7. We knew not having a reservation could hinder us, but we saw it wasn't crowded, so we went in. The person at the front indicated we could have the high table, but with our four year old and his short legs, we thought it best to stick with lower seating.
Welp, that, my friends, was where the train left the proverbial station.
To give you an idea, this was 3pm on a Saturday, and there were two other tables occupied when we arrived. This left the tall table, and five-six other tables available. The front person asked us to wait a minute, then disappeared. She did not return, rather a manager-type did, and informed us that it would be "about a 45 minute wait". Huh?? We thought we must be missing something, because there were clearly two (possibly more) four-top tables that could have been moved together to accommodate us in the center of the back space.
Did they have a reservation for those seats? Nope. How I know that is, they offered to seat us if we agreed to sit at the two four-top tables, separately, literally within arms reach of each other, but not moved together.
What made this even more asinine was the same person who greeted us initially was our server, and she took our orders JOINTLY AS ONE TABLE. She literally stood between us and could have touched my back and my friend's back at her table, and treated us as one order, even asking (which took some nerve) if she needed to separate the checks for us.
At first, giving the benefit of the doubt because this situation was so odd, I thought perhaps they didn't move the tables because they were heavy, or grounded to the spots they were in. Nope.
Then, I thought maybe they were concerned about clearance of the area (fire hazard) if they put the tables together. Nope - without even measuring this, I could see this could have been easily accomplished without risk to the other customers.
I like to compliment service, I like to find the good in each experience, and the food was pretty good overall. Slow to arrive, but in the right circumstances, that's not a deal-breaker. The menus with crayons is a bit juvenile, but hey, it gets you a custom order and it's not expensive to maintain. Plus the kids liked that option. Good form. The fries were good, food was plentiful, drinks were refilled. These things are why I even considered a 2-star rating instead of 1.
That said, I can't leave a good review here. This was clearly a case of them hoping we would just leave after the initial brush-off. I would have had better luck (and more receptive) at a chain restaurant.
To the owners who may (or may not, with their overall level of "give a darn") read this, please note - if a party comes in making a perfectly reasonable request, honoring it might be in your best interest. There are lots of burger joints to choose from, and your burger was fine but not outstanding. Service is what people remember. People will tell their friends about how you treated them.
I hope others have experiences much more rewarding than ours. read more