Free Food? Try Free Puke
So, Denny’s did their “free grand slam” thing today. Hey, free food, I’ll try it out…
The following is what I posted on the Seattle PI’s blog about the event:
I went to the Denny’s in Lynnwood this morning, and honestly, if I had’ve known the details (which were available nowhere on the website), I wouldn’t've bothered. The relatively short line (we probably waited about 20 minutes for my mother and I to be seated) was the only good thing.
From watching people be seated, it seemed that most of the parties were of two people. However, even with this fact, individuals were specifically told to take the “first seat you come to” at the counter, even if there were two seats together at the counter, and the individual was behind a couple.
The second problem we had, was the utter lack of communication. While yes, the website and promotional images DO show two pancakes, two eggs (over easy), two pieces of bacon, and two pieces of sausage, if you go to the menu of the website, you are told that a Grand Slam is ANY 4 of a choice of 8 or 10 options. Nowhere on the site does it specify that you are only allowed to get that specific meal, and they only would allow you to get scrambled eggs. Even opting for your eggs cooked another method resulted in you having to pay for your meal. This upset me greatly, because I don’t eat pancakes or sausage, and given my intolerance to egg whites, or eggs not cooked in a specific method, my breakfast ended up being 4 pieces of bacon (I swapped my mom’s bacon for my sausage). Thank goodness I work in food service myself, and was able to buy a bagel at my own work, or I would have had nothing but 4 pieces of bacon until I got home at 3.
The third problem we had was the service. Our server was very short with us, and, while I understand that they were busy, she did not have to snap at us when my mom asked for a menu to see what the options for the Grand Slam were. My work has been much busier than that, during the middle of lunch rush at the mall during holidays, and I would never allow one of my cashiers to act like that to a customer. If I caught them, I’d ask them to go in the back and cool down before coming back out, even if we had a line longer than theirs was. Discounting our own server, a server at another table didn’t even know that they weren’t custom cooking the eggs, which led to a very upset man, as his daughter wanted her eggs sunny-side up. They should have had a mandatory meeting for everyone who was working today to attend, where they made SURE that everyone understood exactly what the promotion detailed, and counseled them on how to keep their cool.
All in all, as I told my mother as we were leaving (we were there a total of about 40 minutes, as she ate quickly so that I wouldn’t have to look at her food, which was making me sick to my stomach), that I wouldn’t've even bothered if I had’ve known how it was. Even with the bagel, my stomach was still churning for a couple of hours (I had had a bite of my eggs, not realizing that they weren’t dry, and that there was milk in them), and I was just glad that I didn’t throw up in my restaurant.
When I was younger, we patronized that Denny’s often, it was our “family dinner out” restaurant. Then, when they became a “Denny’s Diner”, we had horrible service, and never went back. I went once with a group of coworkers after a meeting, and again with my mother, in the past few years, and the food and service were decent, but nothing to praise. After today, it’s not likely that I will return.