Had a really bad experience last night at the Cave Creek location. We arrived around 5:45pm, and there was a 20-30 minute wait for the dining room. The Cantina was not busy, so my daughter, two grandsons (7 and 2), and I went and grabbed a booth. We were greeted about five minutes later by the server, who was obviously running the area by himself. He took our drink order, two HH margarita's and soda's for the kids. The busboy brought out chips and salsa. Server came back about ten minutes later to take our order. My daughter ordered the HH pizza, fries for the kids, and I ordered the Fundido. We noticed that it was getting a little busier, but really didn't pay to much attention because we were really just enjoying our visit. By this time we are about 30-35 mins into our visit. I started noticing that tables that had come in after us, were getting their food. There was even a party of six that had come in after us, was served before us. I'm getting a little impatient, and the server, who has been serving all these tables, swings by and says "I'm still trying to figure out what happened to your food". FIGURE OUT WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR FOOD, I didn't know there was a problem.
It's now about 6:25, so I got up and asked the hostess to see a manager. She motions to a man standing there. He never introduces himself, but I explained what happened. He walks away from me, I go back to the table. He never comes back to explain, but about 5 minutes later the server comes back and says "the manager took the food off your bill, so all you have to pay for is the drinks"...DUDE, WE NEVER GOT OUR FOOD! I told him I was not paying for the drinks, that I wanted to see the manager. I sent my daughter and kids home, since it was obvious that we weren't getting our food. The manager came over, and she apologized, explaining that she just heard what happened. That the server did ring in the food, but the ticket may have gotten lost!?! Of course she wasn't going to charge us for the drinks.
That is all well and good, but I explained to her that I have been in the industry for many yrs, and I've owned my own restaurant. There was NO manager presence since we sat down, and that the server should have alerted management as soon as he realized we had not gotten our food, and others we literally done eating and leaving, while we sat there! We should have never have waited so long. Plus, the fact that I had to ask to see a manager, the first man I talked to never came to my table to explain, that the server had to get a second manger!
The worst part, she didn't offer anything to get us to return! Back in my day, when I was alerted that there was a problem at a table, before even approaching the table, the first thing I did was get a $10 gift card Just to let the guest know that not only was I sorry for the delay, but to let them know that we valued their business, and here was a little incentive to come back.
So, we NEVER got our food, the service sucked, and management should be trained better on how to smooth things over. Left a very "sour taste"...no pun intended....lol read more