For most of my adult life, The OSF has been one of my favorite places to eat. I love their “Manager’s Special” where you pick two items to top your spaghetti and always have the same thing every time I go. It’s our “go to” place for a really good, affordable meal. They are family friendly and I have never been disappointed in all these years until today.
My mom and my kids took me there tonight for my birthday and it was not a fun experience. Ok the fact that my grandkids both had mini melt downs and the 5-year-old almost knocked the table over pushing on it, I can only partially blame on the restaurant. If our waitress had been attuned to the fact that there kids at the table AND if she had acknowledged us in a timely manner, or for that matter done anything in a timely manner we might not have had the melt downs to begin with. Now if you have gone to the OSF you know you get great hot crusty bread and most times it’s on your table before your drinks are. If this has had happened, two small hungry, cranky children would have been pleased as punch to munch on bread and the fact that the service was at a snail’s pace might have been over looked. But alas, our bread came to the table as we were finishing up our salads and only then when we inquired about it.
Our waitress didn’t appear to be in training and ironically her name was Becky. She was as slow as Molasses in the middle of January and she never once apologized for her lack of speed, inefficiency or ability to not take our orders and get the food on the table. She failed to bring ordered items and we had to ask for extra napkins which is a must with small children and usually something a good waitress/waiter provides up front. Now both my girls have worked in the food industry, so I know what a good server is and how they are supposed to act. You acknowledge the table within a minute of them being seated to at least introduce yourself. If you can’t take their order right then you explain you will return in just a few minutes. Drink orders are taken quickly to assure they have something on the table and at this place usually bread is brought to help ward off the hungries taking over.
More often than not, our entrees arrive at The OSF before we have even finished our salads. Today,there was a good 20 mins. between courses. Now I will admit they were very busy, but then most times you go there they usually are, so not sure why today they couldn’t get their “stuff” together. When our dinners finally arrived they were delivered by a gentleman in a tie. When I asked if he was the manager and he said yes, I told him that our waitress was awful. Before I could even describe her faults he abruptly said “I know I talked to her already.” Talked to her about what? This was the first we mentioned it. So had there been other complaints from guests? Had she told him we made a snide comment to her about our bread? So great, you talked to her, but still no apology from him for her behaviour, no offer to comp. part of the bill or give us a free special dessert since it was my birthday. No wonder she was rude, he was rude too!
It’s a good thing their food is soooooooooooooooooo good and reasonable or I would cross them off my list of favorite places. Like I said we have been going there for years, have visited many of their locations, always been pleased and never let down……..until today! Fullerton, Ca it will be a awhile before I come to visit your site again. Newport Beach is not that far, maybe that will become our new favorite location. In today’s bad economy with food places shutting their doors on daily basis it seems to me you would push good customer service more than ever, but I guess when you have a line out the door you feel you don’t need it. Too bad, your day might come sooner than you think.
Hope you had a nice day and some good customer service. And if you did, let me know where it was, my family would like to go there for the next birthday we celebrate.
B
