Slow service and management guffaws

Ok, a few things w/ this one. First, if you have a schedule you need
to meet, going out to a sit down restaurant in the middle of the lunch
hour is not your smartest decision. Secondly, food takes time to
prepare. If they cooked your food in 5 minutes, you'd complain it was
not done well enough. I have been to Rock Bottom many times, and have
never had a problem with it. I think maybe you should try again!

This is quite awhile to be waiting around and there seems to be lots
of mistakes. One thing to remember: never send food back, many times
the kitchen staff will do something to the food, they either spit in
it or other things I won't mention. I used to work in a kitchen.
People got very annoyed when meals were sent back.

I love Rock Bottom! I went to the one in downtown Minneapolis and
LOVED their beer that had a hint of grapefruit in it. But, then again,
I love grapefruit juice! ;)

It doesn't surprise me that the food took that amount of time because
Rock Bottom isn't one of those restaurants that just has everything
frozen waiting for a warm-up. Seems pretty reasonable for some great
food!

I'm inclined to point out the obvious: food does not make itself, and
24 minutes (or whatever it really was) is -not- a long time for a
server to enter the order, the kitchen to put it in the prep line,
actually prepare it, put it up, then ring the server to bring it to
you.

A hamburger should cook for something like 20 minutes. Unless all you
want to order is microwaved meat and vegetarian salads, you'd better
learn to wait for meat to be cooked properly.

I just love restaurants where the management is jovial.

I have been in the OP's situation (to some degree), and found myself
checking my watch because things were taking longer than I expected.
The OP did mess up the timekeeping just a bit (the business of the
check taking 22 minutes was not quite right), but overall was within 3
minutes. However...

That said, I think the OP's expectations of going to a sitdown
restaurant at lunch time and expecting to get in and out in an hour
were totally unrealistic. Also, an error that was not described in
detail caused the OP's dish to go back to the kitchen.

By the way, it is called Rock Bottom, so I wouldn't have very high
expectations in the first place. Just kidding.

Just to say this again... THE TIMES DON'T ADD UP. I typed up a
timeline based on what the OP wrote and he has obvious mistakes, so
the letter has been rendered utterly useless. His whole complaint is
based on time, and even he can't keep it all straight.

Nevermind the fact that they're ENTERING the restaurant at 12:40 (in
the middle of the lunch rush) and need to be out within an hour (get
out at 1:40 and have 20 minutes to make it to a 2 p.m. appointment).


I think it just comes down to, the OP and his friends should have
chosen a different restaurant. And written a more cohesive letter.

I didnt know rock bottom was a chain! Then again, I've only been there
2-3 times.

Sorry for the tangent, moving on...
I have to agree with others that the letter comes across as a little
confusing because of all the times. I had to re-read it a few times to
really get a gist of the wait times.

The wait times dont really sound all that uncommon for a resturant
during lunchtime, and your friends were cutting it kind of close to
the Doctors appointment. You didnt really mention how busy the place
was, so I am going to assume that it was pretty busy becaue it was
lunchtime. Did you speak to the manager or the server about the wait
times? If you didn't, you really cant expect the manager to read your
mind and come apologize.

It sounds like a mystery-shopper wannabe. If you do a mystery shop
lunch, you're supposed to keep times like this.

Management guffaws?

guffaw [guh-faw, guh-]
noun
1. a loud, unrestrained burst of laughter.
verb (used without object)
2. to laugh loudly and boisterously.

I don't see anywhere that management was laughing at you. Perhaps what
you meant to say was:

gaffe also gaff (g?f)
n.
A clumsy social error; a faux pas: "The excursion had in his eyes been
a monstrous gaffe, a breach of sensibility and good taste" (Mary
McCarthy).
A blatant mistake or misjudgment.

I have to agree with the others that your obsession with time in this
matter is disturbing.

Did you ask for the manager to come over? He/she may not have even
known there was a problem. Did you let the server know right from the
start that time was an issue? I'm thinking no.

Put the stopwatch away!

If you wanted fast food you should have gone to a fast food
restaurant. 1 hour in a sit-down place for 4 people to eat lunch & pay
their check is not enough time. Perhaps your irritation played into
the treatment you received when you asked for the check (even though
it shouldn't have). Regardless, I think you had extremely unrealistic
expectations from the minute you had your foot in the door.

Jeez, were you using a stop watch?!

You need to rewrite this letter, as the time stamps make no sense.