What a strange experience. I had heard the food was good here, so I figured I'd give it a try. I ordered at the counter and then stepped aside to wait for my food. I quickly noticed that there was no one in the back area preparing food. There was a man putting dough into the oven which was already full of focaccia bread. Already, I was wondering who was preparing the orders. Meanwhile, the lady at the register is continuing to take orders. After taking the orders of the other 5 or so people behind me, she slowly walked to the sink, washed her hands, and came to the food counter where she slowly put on two set of food handling gloves on on top of the other. Dough guy is continuing to put dough in the oven. The counter lady begins, slowly, putting at least 10 order tickets up on the counter. Slowly. Myself and another woman who was also waiting, noticed that a man wearing a Stone Oven uniform was outside the food area (essentially where we were standing) leaning against a pillar. I'd say about 10 minutes have passed at this point and yet, no one has prepared any food. The woman begins to slowly make a sandwich (there is absolutely not urgency to her activity). The man leaning against the pillar walks over and wipes down the customer side of the bar and then walks backs to lean on the pillar. Dough man then walks over to the register and begins to take more orders! NO ONE HAS MADE ANY FOOD YET! A man approaches the counter and asks if order #61 is ready. The woman, in a very huffy tone, responds, "I'm only on number 56." Wow, really? So I calmly say to her, "Is there anyone that can help you?" Her response, again huffy, "No." The guy behind the register asks if so-and-so is coming in - she says to him, in a huffy tone (do you see a pattern?), "he's not coming until 4 and so-and-so isn't coming until 5." At this, register guy continues to take more orders while the woman is still working on making the first sandwich. 15 minutes have passed. At this point, a few us who are waiting begin to get agitated, and the woman standing next to me says, "I'm diabetic and if I don't get my food soon, they'll be wiping me up off the floor. What's that guy doing leaning against the pillar - directing traffic?" So I say to the register guy, "you should probably stop taking orders until you can catch up with the orders you already have." No response, he just stares at me. Does - not - compute. So I wait another couple of minutes (keep in mind that the rest of my family has probably finished eating their chipotle at this point _ I should've gotten Chipotle) and I say to the register guy, "I'd like my money back because this is clearly not working out." He says, "I'll make your food right now." I say, "And what about the 5 people that were ahead of me that are also waiting? That's not fair to them. Please just refund my money." Without responding, he takes my receipt and slowly opens the register to give me my money back. When I got back to my family, they were all finished eating and wondering where I had been for the last 20 minutes....without food. I didn't get to eat.
I felt like I was in the twilight zone. What was the purpose of the random guy leaning against the pillar? I get that the woman was grumpy because she didn't have help, but (a) you see that there are at least 15 people waiting for their food, so you pick up the pace. Apparently, she didn't think she should move any faster than a snails pace and (b) you don't have to be rude to the customers. It's not our fault your manager didn't schedule enough people, and (c) you DID have help! You see that there are people waiting for the food they already paid for, don't take new orders! Common sense.
I'm very disappointed. I don't care how good the food is, nothing trumps customer service. read more