You actually ate at South of the Border? Bless you my child.

My best "never eat there again" happened while I was visiting with a girlfriend’s family in Memphis. She insisted on a group of us eating at a Mexican place (part of a chain) across the river in West Memphis, Arkansas. When we walked in, there was no hostess in sight. But we were soon greeted by a mouse, which came from under the kitchen door and staggered towards us. It got to about six feet away, rolled over and died, with what appeared to be blood coming out of it’s mouth. It was a deathscene straight out of a Shakespeare tragedy! The first restaurant employee to happen by was a busboy. His reaction when we pointed it out was total indifference. He was in absolutely no hurry to get the dead mouse out of public view. The scene was so ridiculous, I felt like we were on Candid Camera. Believe it or not, we actually still ate there at her insistence. Yeah, I know….I was young and stupid!

Got that one right, Sinkiller. I had diarrhea for two days on vacation and we had to stop about 10 times. Lord that place is nasty.

Worst location with multiple terrible places to eat, South of the Border, at the N.Carolina/S.Carolina line, on I95.

quote:

Originally posted by Tastytoo

We went to the Stir Crazy in Northbrook Court and did not have that problem. But we went when it was crowded. It seems that most of my experiences with slow/ non exsistent service is at off peak hours.

We’ve had a number of problems with service at this place over the years (the one in Northbrook Court), and seldom go there now. But the food is pretty good.

One thing I’ve noticed is that Raodfood jernts are either awesome or absolute dreck, but chains are all colors of the spectrum, including awesome (that was a Country Kitchen just off the evil I-94 in Kenosha, WI, and all I had was a sundae with some golden molasses on tip, and the ice cream had vanilla beans in it. YUMMM!!!!)

I’ve been to McDonald’s and had the best (well, not absolute best, but excellent) food, and been to others and did a to-the-rear because I didn’t have the stomach for them. Good thing I quit smoking so I can smell the nasty.

I will never eat at Bookbinders in Philadelphia again EVER. 1. Seated by the bathroom door and it smelled although we were dressed to the nines, made reservations 2 months in advance, and the restaurant was not full. 2. No waiter for almost 15 minutes to just take our drink order. 3. Entrees brought out completely wrong three times – Never have I seen such a total catastrophe – We left without eating or paying. I will never go there again.

Grazies is a fairly new italian place here in the Fox Valley. I tried the lasagna. It wasnt gross but it was like something you would have gotten out of a Stoufers box except the Stoufers stuff was better. No real tase and something in it gave me a horrible case of heartburn. I will get my lasagna from Luigis from now on. I am not a fan of Applebees either. I just get this strange feeling that everything is pre-frozen and microwaved when it is needed. I only go there because my friends like it there.

quote:

Originally posted by abe_froeman

Ha, tastytoo, that’s the one we went to! I’ve had slow service during any hour, so I can’t really attribute it to that.

Sorry, I made the assumption that you meant the one in Warrenville/Winfield since it’s right by the Cantera movie complex! It’s only been open a year if that makes a difference and it sits in the middle of a very upscale office area so they get heavy business traffic as well.

Ha, tastytoo, that’s the one we went to! I’ve had slow service during any hour, so I can’t really attribute it to that.

We went to the Stir Crazy in Northbrook Court and did not have that problem. But we went when it was crowded. It seems that most of my experiences with slow/ non exsistent service is at off peak hours.

Obviously, this was a problem with one waitress at one location, so I can’t judge the whole chain, but the whole experience was miserable and the food and prices weren’t worth going back for. It would have been nice to have a manager come over and apologize, maybe pass on some gift certificates or something, rather than the half-assed apology and some unnecessary dessert that we couldn’t even enjoy because of her mistake in the first place.

One of my co-workers and I ventured to find a local restaurant (Kopps Canteen, in Chittenango, NY) that was famed for its chicken and biscuits. We didn’t know exactly where it was and we were running out of lunch hour so finally stopped at the nearst diner-type place. I believe it was called Aunt-Em’s and I believe it is long out of business. Well lo and behold, they had chicken and biscuits on the lunch special so we ordered it.

We were presented with two plates piled high with the blandest, most tasteless chicken and biscuits ever concocted…covered in a fluorescent yellow gravy. My friend, who was originally from North Carolina questioned in his wonderful accent…" How they do that? How they takes something and make it taste like nothing"?

quote:

Originally posted by abe_froeman

My other bad experience was at a Stir Crazy. My boyfriend, myself and two friends took a half-day off work to see a movie on opening afternoon (It was the only chance we’d have to see it together that weekend.) It was a 3:00 movie, I think and we got to the restaurant a little before 2:00. The theater was in the mall, right next door to the restaurant, so we figured we’d be okay. When we got there, it was basically empty- maybe one or two other small tables. We told our waitress we had to get to the theater in less than an hour, and she said that was no problem. She took our appetizer and entree order and put it right in.

We were near the kitchen, and we could see the counter where they put the orders out as they’re ready. A few minutes went by and our appetizer appeared on the counter, but our waitress was nowhere to be seen. We didn’t want to just go up there and get it- what if it belonged to one of the other tables? So we waited a couple minutes and started to get agitated. There was literally no staff around in the restaurant for us to talk to. After about 10 minutes (by now it was about 2:30) we spotted a hostess or another waitress. We called her over and said that we thought that was our order, but we hadn’t seen our waitress anywhere in about 15 minutes. She apologized and went to find someone (at this point the appetizer was cold, so we didn’t want it, and our entrees were starting to show up on the counter) After another 5-10 minutes, our waitress showed up again, she was apologetic, but offered no explanation as to where she was.

I understand that stuff happens- maybe she was feeling ill (in which case I wouldn’t want her touching my food to begin with and wouldn’t want to know about it if she was) and had to go to the bathroom, but you tell a coworker and they cover your tables for you. She didn’t seem sick, so I suspect she went out for a smoke, maybe talking on the cell phone and lost track of time. Still completely inexcusable. They tried to make up for it with free dessert, but we could hardly eat it, considering it was nearly 3:00.

What further ticked me off is that someone in our party (who shall remain nameless) is a sucker when it comes to tipping and tipped her like 25%. His excuse was that she made up for her mistake with the dessert, but to me, she completely lost it by disappearing for 20 minutes and the free dessert just brought her back up to 15%, if that. I was furious about the whole situation and will not go back there. [:(!]

We go to Stir Crazy quite often and have never had a problem and I think it’s the same one you are talking about, but, we never order off the menu and always get the do-it-yourself stir fry. Every time we have gone there have been so many waitstaff around that they are tripping over one another and we have always had a manager come by and ask if all was ok. Try them again when you are rushed.

The buffet at the Caesar’s casino in Indiana is a place I’ll never eat again. My husband and I made the mistake of eating there, and it was not good — it was kind of like an American version of a bad Chinese buffet where there were lots of items but nothing was good.
Never again…….there are too many excellent restaurants across the river in Louisville.

Andrea