I hate to rant, but I have had some really poor service when going out to eat lately.

Now I must admit, I probably eat out for meals more than most.  I probably go to a sit down restaurant for 7 - 10 meals each week (I know that's terrible from both a health and financial point of view).  Lately, it just seems to me that service has really suffered, which I don't understand.  With the supposed "death" of the consumer, restaurants should be polishing their service to keep existing clientele. 

One particular place, that many of you are probably familiar with, is PF Changs.  The last three times I have been there, it has taken 5 - 10 minutes for my table to even be greeted by our waiter.  The first time this happened, I thought, well it must have been a fluke.  The second time, the waitress made no apology, and the overall service was just terrible.  She even went as far as to walk away from our table while boxing up our food to go and talk to a co-worker at the bar for over 5 minutes.  RUDE!  When I told the manager about the service, and how apathetic the waitress was, I just got an apathetic response, not even an apology.  Not to be deterred by bad service, as I really like PF Changs' food, I went again last week.  Same old story, and I requested to speak to a manager.  The manager was very apologetic and sat down to talk for a few minutes.  He ended up bringing us an appetizer (in addition to the one I had already ordered) and took $25.00 off our bill.  He also told me to ask for him the next time we come in.  Finally, some redemption, though it shouldn't be like that in the first place.

Two weeks ago I was at a downtown steakhouse (I'll let them remain nameless since it's a first offense).  We made reservations for 8:00, arrived, and were told that it would be a few minutes.  We weren't sat until 8:30.  The meal was great, though the waitress seemed a bit inexperienced.  When it game to dessert though, there was a bit of a SNAFU, so I again requested to speak with the manager about that, and the delay in the beginning.  He was very kind, told me to mention him when we made reservations next time, and comped our dessert. 

I really don't complain just to get something comped (though it usually does work out that way), but it really bugs me when the service is bad, especially when it has become so customary to leave a 20% tip.  If I am paying for the service, I expect it to be good.