remember when they used to play infernal commercials before the movie started about a year or so back? one of them was red robin. and it used to drive me nuts, because of catchy little earworm “red robin – yuuuuuum!” but what was worse than that was watching people blown up bigger than life consuming pink-middled slabs of nastiness covered in bacon and cheese and sauce and ugh… you get the idea.
full disclosure: i’m not a vegetarian or a vegan. but i do in fact think that meat is disgusting. i mean, think about it for just a second: meat is muscle. flesh. you wouldn’t eat your arm, right? or your tummy? why eat a cow’s then? or a pig’s? ewww. but what’s worse is when you know about how they grow and process the stuff. check out one of my favourite new books, skinny bitch and i’m sure you’ll agree.
anyway, as fate would have it we got a coupon in the mail, so the boyfriend and i decided to go check it out. it takes a lot of motivation for us to part ways with a ten-spot for a burger. so he ordered a blackened bayou burger and i ordered a classic cheeseburger – made with a gardenburger pattie. because if you can have a gardenburger, why on earth would you eat a burger?!?! our server had started out attentive to a fault. she came around three times before taking our order. but then, she just… disappeared….
a full fifteen minutes later (on a tuesday! at 7:30!! with like a dozen other patrons!!!) we finally got our food. it was, predictably, cold. so the boyfriend went to get the manager. and here is where red robin earns their wings;
the manager rushed right over to our table, fell all over himself apologizing, whisked our cold food away (after offering to leave bf’s burger with him to munch on) and, after confirming our order personally, promised us brand new, perfect plates in just a minute. only about four minutes later, tops, he was back; burgers steaming, fries so hot you could start a grease fire. the cheese on bf’s burger all stringy melty. and he immediately knocked our meal down to half price! after that, he promised to check up on us again in a few.
and that’s when i noticed he’d forgotten the cheese on my burger (which he’d confirmed when he dashed off to replace our food the first time) so when he came back, we thanked him but did mention that my cheese was missing. and do you know what he did? he immediately comped the meal completely, asked us to please come back again perhaps tomorrow and let them give us another chance to impress, and then, after all that, he even went back to the kitchen and brought me two fresh slices of cheese, “if it’s not too late” he said.
so while i can’t give them a totally good report (and how could i? i always need something to biotch about) since a minimum of $8.49 is just too much for a burger, i will give props to the manager for being on his toes and awesome at customer service.
and maybe we’ll be back.
someday.
eventually.
after all, we do still have our coupon.
red robin (yum)