- Oct 30, 2000
- 14,665
- 440
- 126
CLIFFS AT BOTTOM
Well last night was Valentine's Day, and despite it being a Hallmark created holiday, many people around the world celebrate it with their loved one(s). I, like the rest of the sheep, went out. My experiences last night weren't so great over all though. Here's my story.
First off, my girlfriend couldn't find the shoes she wanted to wear with the dress I had bought her this past weekend. She thinks her mom kept them when she moved in with me. So I had to leave work early yesterday to go shoe shopping. She isn't the easiest person to go shopping with, especially for shoes, since they have to fit her just right. Also most shoes to her either looking like "grandma shoes or hoochie mama shoes" and she refuses to wear any shoes that looks like of those. So after we went to a few stores, time was starting to run out for when we needed to get ready to go to our restaurant reservation at Macaroni Grill. Which was her choice to go there and not mine.
So we picked out shoes to wear but in her haste she didn't notice the buckle for the strap that goes around the ankles had no "prong" to insert into the holes of the strap. It was like that for both shoes. I don't know if it was a design defect, but it was very strange. I was not informed of the problem until later in the night though when the straps kept slipping out of the buckle. So I had to keep bending down for her constantly all night long to tighten them back up.
So we got dressed and headed out the restaurant. It was a horrible Valentine's Day experience at Macaroni Grill.
I had called in a few days before to setup a reservation knowing that it was going to be busy. This way my girlfriend and I wouldn't have to wait for a long time after we got there. Our reservation was for 7pm. We got there 10 minutes before. The people in front of us in line at the hostess station were being told it would be a 45 minute wait until seats were available for non reservations. When I got to the counter and mentioned I had a reservation at 7, the hostess hands us a buzzer and says we'll be called soon. We were not called until 7:30 which was 40 minutes later. That is completely unacceptable to wait that long when having a reservation.
At our meal the waiter named Jon, who only had 3 tables, took his time getting to ours. When he did all he did was pour olive oil on a plate and take our drink order. When he came back with the drinks was when I had to mention to him about the bread. He grabbed the bread and I had to ask about the seasoning for the oil. He also forgot to bring us water despite bringing us empty glasses to put the water from the decanter in. He never took our meal order until after my GF and I had finished eating the bread 15 minutes later. My girlfriend ordered the Florentine steak meal and I ordered the daily special.
My meal was bland tasting and most unappetizing, the butter nut squash special. It was advertised to have truffles and prosciutto on it. It came with neither. Nothing but giant cheese filled pasta with some chopped up vegetables and sauce put on top. Parts of the pasta were hard and over cooked but edible.
My girlfriend's meal was much worse. She asked for her steak to be cooked medium. By aggregate that was what she got because have the steak was almost raw and the other half was burnt to a crisp. It was a steak I wouldn't feed to a dog. She barely ate any of it and stuck with the fries that was served. She's not the type to send food back either and refused to let me do so.
Even after all this, my original drink order was never refilled nor asked to be refilled by the waiter until he was handing us the bill. Didn't ask if were ready to leave, but walked up to our table and plopped down the bill. As he was about to walk away that was when he noticed my empty glass and asked if I wanted a refill. I said no and he left. He never asked if my girl friend wanted a refill on her soda and she was almost out as well. I paid and he left. Not once asking if enjoyed the meal or if we would like to take what we had left to go, which we had plenty because the food was so appalling. Nor would we have taken it, but the utter lack of care and trying to rush us out the door showed us how well Macaroni grill treats its customers.
I did ask to speak with a manager as we walked by the hostess station. I explained a bit to Douglas, the manager, about some of our bad experiences that night. He asked to see our bill, which was about $45, so he could compensate us for the trouble. He comes back and hands me a new bill with $5 taken off. That was almost as insulting as the rest of the experience we had been through. I'm done with that place.
My GF and I are a bit pissed and upset at the restaurant at this point. I asked what she would like to do now. She said anything but go home yet. It was 8:30 at this point. I suggested a movie and she agreed. First I drove out of our way a bit to a theater I like going to, the Alamo Drafthouse. Unfortunately all showing for the rest of the night were sold out there. I figured as much and that would be our luck. So I said to my GF we'll check out the other 2 theaters along the way home and see if they have any showings for something soon. We stop off at the AMC 24 theaters on Heubner Oaks. They were shut down. I was like, WTF? It looked fairly recent too, but this was a HUGE movie theater that was closed. There was construction stuff setup nearby, so I can only assume that the place if down for renovations and not permanently.
Finally we stop off at the Silverado 16. They had showings. However as we were walking the straps to her shoes broke off on her left shoe. So it was either walk barefoot or walk really slowly so the shoe didn't fall off. She has a bad left knee from a massive surgery, so by the time the night was over she was in quite a bit of pain and discomfort from walking funny with the broken shoe.
We ended up watching Chronicle which was a mediocre movie at best. There really isn't anything good in the theaters right now to watch either. We ended up going home after the movie and relaxing as we talked for a bit. I gave her some pain pills for the pain she was in due to the shoe.
Finally I managed to get her into the mood for some skin on skin fun and so my night didn't end up being a complete tragedy.
CLIFFS
1) Had to buy crappy shoes for girlfriend before valentines day night started. Shoes ended up breaking during the night.
2) Macaroni Grill, Italian restaurant, was a horrible experience from the service, to the food, to the manager. Just wretched.
3) Movie after dinner was so-so
4) Still got some skin to skin fun at the end
Well last night was Valentine's Day, and despite it being a Hallmark created holiday, many people around the world celebrate it with their loved one(s). I, like the rest of the sheep, went out. My experiences last night weren't so great over all though. Here's my story.
First off, my girlfriend couldn't find the shoes she wanted to wear with the dress I had bought her this past weekend. She thinks her mom kept them when she moved in with me. So I had to leave work early yesterday to go shoe shopping. She isn't the easiest person to go shopping with, especially for shoes, since they have to fit her just right. Also most shoes to her either looking like "grandma shoes or hoochie mama shoes" and she refuses to wear any shoes that looks like of those. So after we went to a few stores, time was starting to run out for when we needed to get ready to go to our restaurant reservation at Macaroni Grill. Which was her choice to go there and not mine.
So we picked out shoes to wear but in her haste she didn't notice the buckle for the strap that goes around the ankles had no "prong" to insert into the holes of the strap. It was like that for both shoes. I don't know if it was a design defect, but it was very strange. I was not informed of the problem until later in the night though when the straps kept slipping out of the buckle. So I had to keep bending down for her constantly all night long to tighten them back up.
So we got dressed and headed out the restaurant. It was a horrible Valentine's Day experience at Macaroni Grill.
I had called in a few days before to setup a reservation knowing that it was going to be busy. This way my girlfriend and I wouldn't have to wait for a long time after we got there. Our reservation was for 7pm. We got there 10 minutes before. The people in front of us in line at the hostess station were being told it would be a 45 minute wait until seats were available for non reservations. When I got to the counter and mentioned I had a reservation at 7, the hostess hands us a buzzer and says we'll be called soon. We were not called until 7:30 which was 40 minutes later. That is completely unacceptable to wait that long when having a reservation.
At our meal the waiter named Jon, who only had 3 tables, took his time getting to ours. When he did all he did was pour olive oil on a plate and take our drink order. When he came back with the drinks was when I had to mention to him about the bread. He grabbed the bread and I had to ask about the seasoning for the oil. He also forgot to bring us water despite bringing us empty glasses to put the water from the decanter in. He never took our meal order until after my GF and I had finished eating the bread 15 minutes later. My girlfriend ordered the Florentine steak meal and I ordered the daily special.
My meal was bland tasting and most unappetizing, the butter nut squash special. It was advertised to have truffles and prosciutto on it. It came with neither. Nothing but giant cheese filled pasta with some chopped up vegetables and sauce put on top. Parts of the pasta were hard and over cooked but edible.
My girlfriend's meal was much worse. She asked for her steak to be cooked medium. By aggregate that was what she got because have the steak was almost raw and the other half was burnt to a crisp. It was a steak I wouldn't feed to a dog. She barely ate any of it and stuck with the fries that was served. She's not the type to send food back either and refused to let me do so.
Even after all this, my original drink order was never refilled nor asked to be refilled by the waiter until he was handing us the bill. Didn't ask if were ready to leave, but walked up to our table and plopped down the bill. As he was about to walk away that was when he noticed my empty glass and asked if I wanted a refill. I said no and he left. He never asked if my girl friend wanted a refill on her soda and she was almost out as well. I paid and he left. Not once asking if enjoyed the meal or if we would like to take what we had left to go, which we had plenty because the food was so appalling. Nor would we have taken it, but the utter lack of care and trying to rush us out the door showed us how well Macaroni grill treats its customers.
I did ask to speak with a manager as we walked by the hostess station. I explained a bit to Douglas, the manager, about some of our bad experiences that night. He asked to see our bill, which was about $45, so he could compensate us for the trouble. He comes back and hands me a new bill with $5 taken off. That was almost as insulting as the rest of the experience we had been through. I'm done with that place.
My GF and I are a bit pissed and upset at the restaurant at this point. I asked what she would like to do now. She said anything but go home yet. It was 8:30 at this point. I suggested a movie and she agreed. First I drove out of our way a bit to a theater I like going to, the Alamo Drafthouse. Unfortunately all showing for the rest of the night were sold out there. I figured as much and that would be our luck. So I said to my GF we'll check out the other 2 theaters along the way home and see if they have any showings for something soon. We stop off at the AMC 24 theaters on Heubner Oaks. They were shut down. I was like, WTF? It looked fairly recent too, but this was a HUGE movie theater that was closed. There was construction stuff setup nearby, so I can only assume that the place if down for renovations and not permanently.
Finally we stop off at the Silverado 16. They had showings. However as we were walking the straps to her shoes broke off on her left shoe. So it was either walk barefoot or walk really slowly so the shoe didn't fall off. She has a bad left knee from a massive surgery, so by the time the night was over she was in quite a bit of pain and discomfort from walking funny with the broken shoe.
We ended up watching Chronicle which was a mediocre movie at best. There really isn't anything good in the theaters right now to watch either. We ended up going home after the movie and relaxing as we talked for a bit. I gave her some pain pills for the pain she was in due to the shoe.
Finally I managed to get her into the mood for some skin on skin fun and so my night didn't end up being a complete tragedy.
CLIFFS
1) Had to buy crappy shoes for girlfriend before valentines day night started. Shoes ended up breaking during the night.
2) Macaroni Grill, Italian restaurant, was a horrible experience from the service, to the food, to the manager. Just wretched.
3) Movie after dinner was so-so
4) Still got some skin to skin fun at the end
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