The last time I ate at the Warminster West Diner, I was a child with my parents. Therefore, I can't accurately recall how it compared at least 10 years later. I can however say that yesterday was one of the worst experiences I've ever had and I will not be returning.
For a Monday night, it was pretty busy and the times when I do eat out or go to a diner fall on the weekend. The busy turn out for sure made me think positive things.
We were seated right away and unfortunately, our waitress meant well -- but she seemed to rush us the moment we sat down. Asked what we wanted to drink, brought the drinks about at most a minute later and already asked if we were ready to order. I think I had just opened the menu. This was the theme the rest of the meal.
I got a BLT club which was okay food quality wise. No real complaints or compliments; its the same at every diner or even small restaurant businesses. Me and my friend were having a good time talking and the waitress came back repeatedly, when it looked like we had sparse plates, to ask did we want anything else... did we want dessert... did we want boxes... more water... to the point where my friend was just like "I guess we're done, we'll just take the check". The waitress came back to clear our plates when we were figuring out how we wanted to split it and still chatting a little bit not that long later. Everything gave us the impression we were being rushed -- in a polite way, I guess?
When we went to pay, we had made the mistake to not ask for our checks to be separate. But at most other diners (Lancer's, Red Lion) in the area... that is never a problem. You can break the subtotal into separate forms of payment. I remember doing this at every food service job I worked and even retail. Nothing painless about this. Well, the man who seated us who I didn't have much to say about prior was utterly rude about it. I wanted to pay $12, my friend would get the rest of the total. Instead, this older gentleman (with an accent and glasses) rudely pointed fingers asking "Well what did you order and what did you order" at us. That didn't really help as I was paying more than what I ordered. We didn't ask to have it split evenly, we wanted our subtotal to be paid in two forms. He was telling us it couldn't be done, to just tell him what we ordered. It was extremely rude. He even said, when asking what I wanted to pay "That doesn't help us". Your service did not help me.
Because of this treatment and feeling like second class citizens, we put the total one card to get out ASAP. Not to jump to conclusions, but I somewhat wonder if the old man was telling our waitress to get us out. He clearly did not have much respect for us as customers and seemed to be a man in charge, calling bad decisions. Truly, as I have been behind a register various times in my past... this was a painless task. You did not need to be rude when we hardly got a chance to speak during the ordeal.
Terrible experience. read more