Well we got out of Younger's before we got all that much older, but not that much sooner. We put in too much time for much too little a reward.
Yes, the peach festival in Romeo is on. So what? They have festivals there from time to time and the restaurants in the area should be ready for events like this. But Younger's seemed to be badly mismanaged and the staff, of which there were more than enough really did not know how to handle the customers and seemed not to have been trained at all. Let me describe.
We arrived and followed a family of six in the front door. There were several empty tables available, but in deference to others that might be waiting we looked around for someone that was seating customers. We walked past a banquette and several larger separable tables. Now you would think that a host or hostess would be at the front door, right? Nope. So as we wandered to the back of the restaurant and did not see such a host or hostess, we saw a table that we could occupy and then we heard a voice from near the back door of the restaurant telling that there was a short ten minute or so line for seating. And then we saw a line and the party of six that had come in before us waiting on that line.
Before I move on to what happened next, let's talk about particle theory. Have you ever heard the term "Brownian Motion?" If you haven't, here is a link that describes it and there are a few explanatory videos that demonstrate the random collisions of particles in enclosed areas and the mathematics behind the randomness of collisions of particles in such an environment. Here's the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownian_motion
I mention this because there is no way to describe the actions of the servers today without referring to Brownian motion. Collisions were random, uncontrolled and none of the servers seemed to know why they were headed in any given direction, what they were supposed to be doing and they did not either prepare for new guests nor did they supply the necessary items that guests needed in order to finish their meals. The Brownian motion started the minute we walked in the door, throughout the meal service and up to and including the amount of time it took to get a check and then to pay.
So we got on the line, and since most of the parties on it were looking for large tables, and because there were a few of them, we found our way to the front of the line in about ten minutes. The entire time we were on the line, nobody parsed the line to find out if there twos, threes, fours, fives or sixes. So it wasn't until they seated the party of six at one of the many tables of six-tops that were available, that they got to us, the only deuce on the line. So when they asked us how many there were in our party, they immediately placed us at the banquette table that we passed on the way into the restaurant.
OK, well although we wasted ten or more minutes on line, we were hungry and wanted to eat and then we waited another ten minutes for a server to finally come over to our table. And then it took another ten minutes for someone to come back to take our order. But then it took another 25 minutes for our two sandwiches to make it to the table.
When my iced tea arrived, some time in between ordering and delivery of the sandwiches, I noticed that there was no sugar or artificial sweetener on the table. I tried to flag down one of the many servers that were randomly milling around to get sweetener, but I was unable to do that. Happily, my wife usually carries some Splenda with her, so we fended for ourselves.
Then after we had almost given up on being served, our sandwiches finally arrived. My wife told the server that we had no setups (fork, knife, spoon, napkin, etc.) and eventually, minutes later we were given those.
And then my wife said "I was supposed to get Cole slaw with my sandwich. I said "me too." and we spend the next few minutes trying to get the attention of one of the myriad of servers that were milling around aimlessly and colliding with one another to come to our table.
"We were both supposed to get Cole slaw with our sandwiches", my wife said. "Oh". replied our wait person. "That is just an option", she said. My wife looked at me incredulously. We want that, I said..
My wife said her sandwich was just OK and I would describe my California Chicken Sandwich the same way. It was just OK. The fries it came with were lukewarm when the sandwich arrived and greasy and cold by the time the utensils made it there. And from my seat I noticed that others at other tables; 1) had not setups, 2) complained about and were eventually served Cole Slaw, 3) waited a long time to sit down, and 4) waited even longer to get served.
Younger's needs a manager badly. The servers seem inexperienced and untrained and the entre system is defocused and pays little to no attention to customers. There is no reason to waste so much of the customer's time. read more