I don't normally post negative things about different places I visit, but I recently had such a bad experience, I'm hoping someone in higher management at the restaurant sees this and helps retrain the wait staff.

I waited tables and bartended through college.  I was a head-wait and also a trainer. That means, I trained people how to treat people when they came into my restaurant.  With that, I never expect to get wonderful service when I go places because no one trains people like I do, but I expect somewhat decent service.

This was my experience at The Iron Cactus at the Hill Country Galleria in Bee Cave, TX a couple of days ago.

We got there about 5:30pm so it was not very busy.  We asked for a booth.  We were told there were no booths available, so they walked us to a table, in the mean time passing three available booths.  I asked if we could sit in one, and the hostess was like, "Well... I guess so."

5 minutes goes by and another hostess brings us chips and salsa and says Katie** will be right with us.  Yes, 5 minutes and still not greeted by a wait staff...

Another couple of minutes goes by, and Katie finally makes her way over, but doesn't even bring water.  Water is practically standard at a Mexican restaurant when eating chips and salsa.  She brings it a couple of minutes later.

We place our order. I was shocked when she didn't need to write anything down even though I modified the order, but I figured she would make up for the slow service by impressing me with her memory.

We get our food, but no extra plate for my daughter.  We then see her delivering food to another table.  Hello?  I already have my food and I can't serve it until I have an extra plate, so even though you didn't want the other food to get cold, MINE is!!

During this waiting time, we realized my husband was missing part of his meal, the chicken flauta.  That took another couple of minutes to get.

She then asks if we want dessert and declined. She brought over the check. 

15 minutes go by and nothing, nada, zilch!!  Our waters had not been refilled, we were dying of thirst, and the credit card had been sitting there forever!

I tried flagging down 5 different wait staff members, but every single one of them walked past us with blinders on.  And I'm not talking subtle waving of the hands.  I was waving every which way outside the booth to get someone to look at me.  I tried to walk up to the water pitchers a couple of times, but someone would always get there before me, and I didn't want to cause a scene.

We finally flagged someone down, got water, and told her that this was ridiculous and we were waiting for 15 minutes to get our credit card scanned.  She took the credit card to a manager to run it...

The manager comes over, hands us the credit card statement, and says, "Sorry for the wait." and walks away.  Huh?  No, "Is everything ok?"  No, "I apologize for your horrible experience."  Nothing...

I left a tip that I shouldn't have, but out of principle to being a former wait person, I had to leave a tip, but definitely not the amount she would have gotten if we got some service!!

Iron Cactus people, if you're reading this, you need to train your wait staff to look around and be observant even if it's not their section.  The wait staff should work as a team, and when a team member is down, the others should help.  This team member was down from the beginning, and no one helped the situation, whatsoever!

I'm not sure if The Iron Cactus will get any future business, but I'll think about a potentially second impression.

** Edit: I received a personal phone call from the Chief Operating Officer, Bryan Soltis. We spoke for about 20 minutes.  It turns out that I used to frequent a restaurant that his wife managed up in the DFW area, small world!  I then received a personal visit from one of the managers, Nathan, and he presented me with a giftcard to visit again and give feedback with it hofefully being a better experience.

I appreciate the immediate follow up the Iron Cactus did.  No restaurant wants bad word of mouth, and i"m willing to go back and give them a second shot to redeem themselves.  I'll update everyone when that happens.

**Are You Packed Yet?**

Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com

Austin, TX and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, Westlake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Whether you're buying or selling, I'll be with you through the entire process.

**Katie is a fictitious name as I feel sorry for the person this is about, and didn't want to reveal her name.