We went to a favourite regional chain on friday for dinner with a friend from out of state. We ended up at a location that we have had issues with in the past. We should have known better...

A very nice hostess seated us. Then we sat and sat and sat. As our guest from out of town stated she had time to read the menu seven times before a waiter showed up at the table. He finally showed, said he was "busy" and took our orders. Along with our orders we requested the number for corporate head office.

This, not surprisingly, brought Larry the manager to your table. Larry did his thing, apologized profusely etc. He was pretty good, though he'd have been better had he not told me that I said one of the orders was take out when I had told him that it wasn't - we did get that did get straightened out to our satisfaction. There were other things - like the two staff members that spent the entire time we were there "hanging out" with friends or family at some tables our lines of sight,and the staff's inability to clear our dishes in a decent time (2 of us had their salad bar)

We were never angry or upset, although we were clearly not happy and communicated that. We eat at this chain frequently (we had been at another location the night before). Therefore when Larry offered to buy us dinner we accepted.

When we left we walked out past the cash register and sat in the car getting ready to leave he parking lot. The best moment of the night came then as the security guard knocked on the window of the car and asked to see our receipt. Larry, bless his heart, bought our dinner, but forgot to tell the security guard we weren't going to be paying. We got that straightened out without having to go back inside but, what an ending to our visit.