Why did we go out to eat at all *or* Longhorn Sucks

I can't decide which title is more appropriate right now. Now normally Tuesday nights are reserved for that ever present tradition of Kids Eat Free night at the local Chick Fil A. Well after the last fiasco of having to threaten TT1 to get him to leave the damn playhouse...we were not going there again this week unless I was staying home and BD was venturing out on his own with the boys. But BD took us to the local Longhorn up in town. We were optimistic...we've been there once before. The food was good, the service was decent, the only issue that time was that the prices to us seemed a little high for the area that we live in.

So we head into the Longhorn. We were seated right away, given children's menus and crayons, drinks ordered right away - a good start to the meal. After we order we sit with the boys and color...play games...keep them occupied so that they don't start getting unruly while we wait. We finally are able to get the waitresses attention and commented to her that she had never asked about the cheese for BD's buger. She replied that it was probably too late but she'd go check. We got no answer one way or the other about the cheese until she brings our meals out about 10 minutes later blaming the extraordinarily long serving time to the fact that they had to re-cook BD's buger to change the cheese. That of course was bull since we could see the cheddar cheese remnants on the burger itself and there was no swiss cheese on it at all which is what he had asked for. She never delivered my fries that I had ordered, and only came back to the table one time between serving the food and delivering the check. In my opinion the service was deplorable. By the time the bill had come we had been there for over and hour and a half and I was more than ready to leave. She dumped the bill on the table with no pen to sign the credit card slip, my kids were already in the car waiting for me, and I just went and signed the slip at the front desk and didn't leave her a cent for a tip.

I was prepared to leave it at that, but after coming home and talking with BD about it, I decided that I really needed to call and tell the manager about how horrible I thought the service was. I told him that the food was great - other than the forgotten fries and the no cheese on the burger - the kids loved the chicken finger basket and my steak salad was wonderful. My only complaint was in fact about the service. He apologized profusely and I accepted that apology acknowledging that he was going to work on the service issue. He also told me that the general manager was going to call me tomorrow to talk about the problems. We'll see what he has to say. I actually felt really good after getting off the phone with the manager. It was great customer service from his end...I just wish they'd train their wait staff to do it right in the first place and he never would have been put in that situation. Customer service is going downhill in so many ways...but this was one time that it was exceptional.

The best part.....

When I was waiting to pay the bill, the table behind me was getting ready to leave. A very nice looking older woman with beautiful white hair stopped next to me and told me that my boys were very well behaved and it was a joy to sit next to us!! I about fell off my seat. I thanked her and told her that it was very nice to hear that.

That about made my year. Especially since the boys were not having a very good week...but tonight....they were a joy to sit next to.